Neil:We’ve got uphill slog now
tackle by Ben Pearson sent Nuno Da Costa sprawling, and on-hand ref Jeremy Simpson pointed to the spot. Up stepped Grabban to calmly hammer low and hard just inside Declan Rudd’s right post, the keeper diving the wrong way.
Stockley was a constant menace up front, and sent out an early warning when he sent a glancing header just over. Late on, another header set up sub Tom Barkhuizen with a chance, but he was unable to connect.
The leveller came when Brad Potts sent over a hard, low cross in front of goal, and there was Stockley in the right place at the right time to steer the ball past Forest keeper Brice Samba with one flowing move.
It was a tight game but Forest’s Sammy Ameobi twice tried his luck, first with a curling long-range effort, then with a fierce cross-goal drive that zipped just wide.
From a set-piece, Preston’s 6ft3in defender Patrick Bauer used all of his inches to rise above the Forest defence and power a header towards goal, only for Ben Watson to save the day for Sabri Lamouchi’s side by blocking and then clearing just off the goal line.
In the end, Forest seemed content with a point, Preston less so. Forest boss Lamouchi said:
“I’m very happy with what was a solid performance. We tried to win it and stayed focused to the end. It may be enough on Wednesday to see us through but who knows.”
Lamouchi praised Grabban, and added: “He wanted his 20th goal and I want my 20th win.
“I think I’m on 18 wins at the moment. Lewis has helped us a lot and we want to stay up there and be in the play-offs for the first time in a lot of years.”
PRESTON N FOREST 2 ........ Shots on Target .......... 1 6 ........ Shots off Target ......... 7 11 ................ Corners ................. 2 18 ................. Fouls .................... 6 1 ................ Offsides ................ 0 70.2.Passing Success %..76.2 342 ....... Total Passes ........ 369 49.7 ..... Possession % ..... 50.3 59.1...Territorial Adv %..40.9