Cardiff City 0-0 Preston North End: Preston stay unbeaten after Cardiff draw

Cardiff striker Max Watters is still searching for his first goal of the season

Preston North End remain unbeaten in the Championship and are still yet to concede a goal after they ground out a draw at Cardiff City.

After a first half of few chances, Cardiff's Joe Ralls hit the post with a fine first-time effort from 20 yards.

The home side dominated possession and had far more shots, but struggled to create genuine opportunities against a well-organised and robust Preston defence.

The visitors almost stole victory against the run of play when Cedric Kipre headed an attempted clearance on to his own post in the final five minutes.

But Preston had to settle for a fifth goalless draw from six matches to leave them 10th in the Championship table and Cardiff 13th, with each team on eight points.

North End have not conceded a single goal in the league this term, keeping a clean sheet in their opening six matches of a season for the first time in the club's history. The problem is that they have only scored one.

Cardiff have not fared much better with a meagre three goals from their first six fixtures, so it came as no surprise that penalty-area action was scarce here.

Ryan Wintle had the hosts' first effort of note, fizzing a half-volley narrowly wide from 20 yards.

Max Watters then engineered a chance all on his own, bulldozing his way through would-be tacklers and leaving them in a heap on the ground, only to balloon his shot over the bar.

That was the story of the first half, with Cardiff enjoying 60% possession and leading 13-0 in the shot count, but seldom creating proper chances inside the Preston penalty area.

The Bluebirds had much the better of the second period too, with Ralls coming closest to a breakthrough with a shot which beat Preston goalkeeper Freddie Woodman only to cannon off the post.

However much the home side pushed forward, though, they found their path to goal blocked by Preston's defenders, who seldom let their opponents into their box and, on the rare occasions they did, the visitors threw their bodies at the ball.

Ryan Lowe's men thought they might have pinched all three points when Kipre headed a cross on to his own post, but they had a late scare of their own when Cardiff debutant Niels Nkounkou, on as a half-time substitute at left-back, pirouetted his way into the box in added time before firing over.

From a defensive perspective, it was a job well done by the visitors. They will have to address their attacking shortcomings at some point but, for the time being, their remarkable run of clean sheets has made it a memorable start to the season for Preston.

Cardiff manager Steve Morison said: "It was an excellent performance, we just didn't cap it off with a goal.

"They defended their box really well and, if we keep playing like that, we'll win more than we lose.

"Performance first and the result will follow. To a man, we were fantastic but just didn't have that one [chance] fall to us.

"Everyone in our team had a chance today and they [Preston] put their bodies on the line and defended really well. It was just one of those days."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe said: "I didn't think it was one of our better performances.

"I thought Cardiff were superb in everything they did and we were second best all over the park.

"My three centre-backs and goalkeeper were outstanding to keep another clean sheet, and we just weren't at our fluent best creating chances.

"I'm disappointed with the performance but pleased we've haven't conceded and pleased we've got a point without playing well."