John Roper’s Preston North End Fans’ Panel verdict: Alan Browne’s our Captain Fantastic!

This was North End’s first win away at Huddersfield since 1992 so you could say this win was more than overdue. A shaky start saw North End go a goal down but the boys managed to get into their stride and at the interval it was obvious that this game was far from over. After the break North End once again came out with their second-half head on and in just eight minutes had turned a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead. Two goals in three minutes by Captain Fantastic, Alan Browne, saw PNE take the lead and put the home side right on the back foot.

It should have been a few more with several good chances going begging and Emil Riis hitting the bar late on but Preston had to see it out under some pressure from ten man Huddersfield and finally got over the line to bring all three points back to Lancashire. Alex Neil kept the same eleven that did the business at Loftus Road on Wednesday evening with Bayliss coming in for Paul Gallagher on the bench to allow Paul to take up assistant duties on the touchline in the absence of Frank McAvoy.

The game started at a breakneck pace and unfortunately it was the Terriers who took the game to North End right from the off. We seemed to be struggling, initially, with sorting out our 3-4-3 formation and the game was only eight minutes old when the home side took the lead.

Campbell was put through and with Bauer beaten, Hughes failed to get a strong enough tackle in and Campbell slotted home past the hesitating Declan Rudd. No changes for Neil at half time as we had seemed quite settled going into the break and it wasn’t long before we had the Terriers on the ropes.

Six minutes after the break the ball found Browne in the inside-left position and the North End captain struck a sweet shot that the Town keeper could only help into the net.

Far from sitting back PNE powered forward and not much more than two minutes later we were in the lead when Browne, again, hooked the ball into the net as Preston moved into overdrive. A penalty shout on Potts came and went and Riis had a great chance with just over 20 minutes to go but fluffed his lines.

Hudderfield went down to 10 with 11 minutes to go as Sarr was sent off for a professional foul. So a great week for North End with six points on the road after two excellent wins at QPR and Huddersfield. I thought this was a better win than Wednesday evening if I am being honest as Huddersfield posed a significant threat.

There were several candidates for the man of the match but Alan Browne gets it for me for the two goals and his superb workrate. Johnson, Potts and Ledson all worked their socks off in the centre of the park and I think once Riis gets on the scoresheet then this lad will go from strength to strength.