Derby County 1-0 Preston North End: Ravel Morrison earns vital win for Rams

Substitute Ravel Morrison fired the ball past Daniel Iversen in the closing stages to claim an important win

Ravel Morrison struck the winner nine minutes from time to hand Derby a vital win over Preston, in a game where both sides ended with 10 men.

The Jamaica international came off the bench to fire home a loose ball in the box and move the Rams off the bottom of the Championship.

Preston defender Liam Lindsay was sent off just after the half-hour mark for hauling down Tom Lawrence as he went through on goal.

The numbers were levelled up after 55 minutes when Derby's Max Bird was shown a red card for a tackle on Ben Whiteman.

Morrison's goal sees Wayne Rooney's men move above Peterborough into 23rd, six points from safety, while Preston, without a win in three, drop to 15th.

Max Bird was sent off 10 minutes into the second half for a foul on Ben Whiteman

Derby had a couple of good early chances as Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen was forced into a fine save to keep out Jason Knight's long-range effort and Lawrence glanced a header narrowly wide.

The visitors then came into the contest with a sustained spell of pressure, which saw Whiteman denied by a good block and Lindsay's header saved well by Ryan Allsop.

But they lost momentum when Lindsay was dismissed on 32 minutes for pulling down Lawrence as the Welshman surged past him and in on goal.

Lawrence sent the subsequent free-kick wide as Preston boss Ryan Lowe had a reshuffle, sacrificing top scorer Emil Riis for an extra defender in Sepp van den Berg.

Derby looked to take advantage of the extra man early in the second half with Lawrence shooting wide and Lee Buchanan being denied by another good Iversen save.

But 10 minutes into the second half Wayne Rooney's side were dealt a huge blow as Bird was sent-off for a challenge on Whiteman.

The game looked to be heading for a goalless draw when a corner created havoc in the Preston penalty area and Iversen made two saves before the ball broke to Morrison, who fired home the winner.

Rams boss Wayne Rooney told BBC Radio Derby:

"It's always nice when you score late on and get three points. I think it was a bit of a strange game. I think we can play better than we did in the first half and then they go to 10 men and I thought we had complete control of the game and were stretching the pitch.

"What pleased me most was that when we went down to 10 men we wanted to win the game most and so I think we deserved the three points.

"You can make it difficult when you're playing against 10 men because you can rush things, so we had to stay patient. We created chances and I'm delighted for Ravel [Morrison] getting the goal."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe:

"We're disappointed. Obviously the sending off just kills momentum and we have to adapt a little bit.

"When they lose their man you think go on the front foot, I thought it was going to affect them more than us because they needed to find the win but they found it and we didn't.

"I thought the game was going to be seen out as a 0-0, we were cagey and I thought Derby were definitely a little bit cagey. We felt we weren't really going to score and they weren't going to find a way of scoring unless it was from a mistake."