Preston North End 1-2 Cardiff City: James Collins caps Bluebirds comeback
- Published
- comments
James Collins scored for the first time since moving to Cardiff City in the summer
Cardiff City came from a goal down to beat Preston North End 2-1 and register back-to-back Championship victories for the first time this season.
North End made a perfect start when Sean Maguire bundled the ball in at the far post after Cardiff failed to deal with a corner inside the first two minutes.
The Bluebirds struggled before the break, but after half time were much improved as Will Vaulks hit the post before Mark McGuinness headed them level from a free-kick two minutes later.
City's turnaround was completed when James Collins headed his first goal for the club from a corner.
The victory - just Cardiff's fourth in the league all season - lifts them up to 19th in the Championship, two places and three points above the relegation zone while Preston remain in 16th place.
Preston had the best of an opening period in which Cardiff failed to register an effort on target as Tom Barkhuizen had a shot blocked, while Alex Smithies did well to save Ali McCann's top corner-bound effort after half an hour.
Aden Flint came closest for Cardiff before the break when his 18th-minute header from Ryan Giles' left-wing cross crept wide of the far post.
Cardiff were much better after the interval and fully deserved their equaliser from McGuinness which shortly after Vaulks' powerful effort had cannoned off the frame of the goal.
Ryan Ledson had a good effort for Preston on the hour, but Smithies dived low to turn it around the post shortly and Cardiff then went in front when Collins got on the end of Ryan Giles' corner.
The Welsh side could have made the final quarter of the game a lot more comfortable but Rubin Colwill's 75th-minute volley was blocked and Daniel Iversen did well to save the young Wales international's shot from close range with eight minutes left.
Preston North End manager Frankie McAvoy told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"Goals change games and they can change the momentum of the game, we knew that Cardiff would come out, they put things into the box and I felt we mainly defended it really well in the first half.
"They made one change, they brought on James Collins and that made a difference to them, we concede a wide free-kick at the back stick where McGuinness gets the better of Sepp and then they score from the corner.
"That's the first goal we've conceded from a corner this season, which is bitterly disappointing as we knew that that's the thing Cardiff are extremely good at, set plays.
"We needed to make sure that we were strong enough to deal with those balls into the box and unfortunately we weren't."
Cardiff City manager Steve Morison told BBC Radio Wales:
"First half we let the game be too frenetic and too many turnovers. They were better on the turnover than we were, so we made a couple of changes to what we wanted to do.
"Second half we came out and the boys were excellent, Collo (James Collins) getting his goal, working really hard and did really really well and Isaak was excellent for the second goal holding it up.
"It was really good and they carried out what we asked them to do, and the rest is history now.
"We need to start starting games like that, we can't be waiting for 45 minutes and going a goal behind, but the most pleasing thing is there's so much there to improve on."