GREEN MACHINE
Preston fight back for famous win
FootBall looks a little bit different at the moment but its capacity to astonish endures. take the remarkable transformation in fortunes here as preston, two goals down to Brentford at half-time and with seemingly no hope, somehow conjured up four goals in the space of 18 minutes.
this second-half blitz — which saw two Scott Sinclair goals swiftly followed by strikes from Brad potts and Sean Maguire — certainly lifted preston’s lowkey start to the season out of the mundane.
their manager alex neil doesn’t come across as a churchillian figure and he was at pains to insist his half-time team talk was simply a calm reiteration of the gameplan rather than stirring oratory.
Whatever, it clearly worked spectacularly as Brentford, cruising after two ivan toney goals, were left shell- shocked and reflecting on a first defeat at their new stadium.
even the introduction of star player Said Benrahma after preston’s third goal couldn’t save them. left on the bench over fitness concerns, Brentford were doing very nicely without him but then were suddenly wondering if things might have been different had he started.
no doubt speculation over Benrahma’s future will rumble on until the transfer window closes. premier league clubs, including crystal palace and Fulham, have been linked but no offers have yet been received. ‘at half-time sometimes you need to repair something,’ said neil. ‘ But the performance wasn’t that bad, there were things to brush up on, care and detail.
‘ We’re always deemed as underdogs as we don’t spend a lot of money. Brentford’s squad is 10 times the price of ours but we never lack character and the boys fight to the end.’
preston weren’t outplayed before half-time but they didn’t create much either.
Brentford had a cutting edge and led after just eight minutes when toney slid in to convert Josh Dasilva’s cross to the near post. and it looked game over when toney scored again just before half-time.
Bryan Mbeumo brought down Sergi canos’s crossfield pass, slipped toney into the clear and he finished smartly.
preston needed a lifeline and Sinclair provided it seven minutes after the restart with a close-range finish after patrick Bauer had nodded down Joe Rafferty’s cross.
Brentford lost composure and Mbeumo was robbed of the ball by andy hughes, who crossed for Sinclair to control well and tuck past keeper luke Daniels. it was soon to be panic stations for the Bees with Ryan ledson finding potts inside the box.
he was afforded space to cut inside and drove a low shot just inside the post.
preston added a fourth on 70 minutes when Maguire swept home after ledson’s corner was knocked down by Ben Davies.
Brentford were too shellshocked to respond and their manager thomas Frank struggled to explain it.
‘You’re 2-0 up and have been so good defensively, then it just goes bang!’ he said. ‘For whatever reason it just happened. the tiny details just go wrong.’