Southampton put Preston North End to the sword as Ryan Lowe's side suffer in brutal first half

Southampton manager Russell Martin was frustrated by the fire which saw Preston North End’s clash at St Mary’s postponed in early March. He felt the added fixture, towards the back end of the season, could be bad news for his side’s automatic promotion chances. With just over half-an-hour on the clock, as the two teams eventually locked horns, his team were home and dry. Game, set and match, with three goals shipped in the space of 14 brutal minutes.

After that bizarre blaze, you did wonder whether North End would still be alive by the time the rearranged contest came along. By contrast, Southampton were as good as guaranteed to still be sniffing around the summit of the division. Last weekend’s defeat to Norwich City ultimately crushed PNE’s play-off hopes, while injuries have certainly hit Preston at the wrong time. There was yet another blow in midfield, with captain Alan Browne deemed not fit enough to start.

That led to Lowe handing a second start to youngster Noah Mawene, who partnered makeshift man Jack Whatmough in the middle of the pitch. The odds of seeing that partnership, at the start of the season, would’ve been interesting. Given the state of play in Southampton’s season, even the most optimistic, hardy soul - among the travelling 400 or so - must’ve feared what could transpire on the night. And, having felt their way into the game reasonably, during the first 15 minutes of the match, PNE were well and truly popped off the park.

Mads Frokjaer had called Alex McCarthy into early action, with the Saints shot-stopper having, bizarrely, gone from third choice to starting - following a warm-up injury to Gavin Bazunu. The intent from Martin’s men had been there though, with the ball fed to Adam Armstrong - up against stand-in right wing-back Duane Holmes - at every opportunity. The opener came along after 19 minutes, with top scorer Armstrong the provider for second top scorer Che Adams - who slotted home first time; no yellow shirts particularly close at all.

It had all the feel of a goal inspired by football’s elite; a pure, cold way of breaking the deadlock - Preston players left wondering what had just happened. And from there, the superior quality of the Saints shone brutally bright. It was two, 10 minutes later, as Adams sold PNE’s defence with a dummy, spun around and received the ball from David Brooks, before slamming home.

PNE were completely carved open in that instance, but the third - not long after - was gift wrapped from the visitors’ point of view. Stuart Armstrong had the ball kicked straight to him on the edge of the box and he curled the ball into the bottom left corner, with Freddie Woodman rooted. North End supporters were offered free coach travel, on behalf of SkyBet, but there was nothing for them to cling on to as the teams headed in at half time.

At the break, the worry was just how ugly this thing may get for Preston. Adams was denied his hat-trick, when his near post effort was blocked, soon after the restart. The hosts appeared to drop down the gears as the match progressed and in the end, PNE managed to limit further damage and keep it at three. That is the number of games left to play and on the basis of Tuesday night’s pumping, Preston are probably ready for that final whistle on May 4.

PNE starting XI: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes, Holmes (Cunningham 39’), Whatmough, Mawene, Brady, Frokjaer, Osmajic (Evans 79’), Riis (Keane 46’) PNE unused subs: Cornell, Seary, Best, Ledson, Browne, Stewart.