Great End to a perfect day
PRESTON showed they are back in business as they shocked ambitious neighbours Blackburn with an electric start and a crushing final flourish.
Within two minutes, Alex Neil’s marauders were ahead when Tom Barkhuizen slotted home, catching Rovers’ defence cold as the winter weather.
Then Callum Robinson really put the East Lancashire men on the back foot when he angled a grass-cutter past keeper David Raya .
It was tough for Blackburn’s travelling army of 5,600 fans in the 20,000 crowd, with an atmosphere between these old rivals that had Deepdale buzzing.
Gaffer Neil (above) was cock-a-hoop at chalking up Preston’s eighth game without defeat in such convincing fashion, adding: “It’s the best atmosphere at Deepdale since I came here.
“We were really aggressive, and Alan Browne was outstanding. His pass for the second was superb and we’re looking to him to add that to his game all the time.”
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray said: “Our defending was uncharacteristically poor.
“We played too deep and there were individual errors. We have to do better. If I was looking for excuses, I could point to Charlie Mulgrew being out for a couple of weeks with injury, and Danny Graham not training for a fortnight too. Even so, he came on and made an immediate impact with his goal – but it wasn’t to be.”
It was a dream start for North End as they hit Rovers’ goal after just one minute and 10 seconds.
Barkhuizen did the damage, but it was all thanks to a great through ball from Republic of Ireland international Alan Browne, who didn’t put a foot wrong throughout.
Browne, 25, couldn’t play for his country in their last outings, due to a shoulder injury, but his presence made all the difference back at Preston. He rolled the ball to Barkhuizen, and, with Blackburn’s defence caught cold, he slotted past keeper David Raya from 18 yards.
With 10 minutes on the clock, lively left flanker Callum Robinson added another.
Again, Browne supplied, with Robinson advancing on goal and the 23-year-old one-time Villa trainee angled the ball wide of Raya into the far corner.
Blackburn may have been put on the back foot, but they showed why they are knocking on the door for a top-six spot.
Old-stager Graham made an instant impact after coming on as a second-half sub, heading home his fifth goal of the season from a Harrison Reed cross.
As Blackburn faded, Preston sub Louis Moult scrambled home a third and then Browne was rewarded for his non-stop prompting with the fourth.