Barnsley 0-0 Preston: Bore draw at Oakwell

The play-off hopes of both Barnsley and Preston were stunted as the two teams played out a goalless draw at Oakwell.

Tom Bradshaw came closest for the hosts, who drop down to ninth place, when the forward's close-range effort was cleared off the line in the second half.

Unlike Barnsley, Preston had remained relatively unscathed from the January transfer window, but failed to score in successive league games for the first time since March 2016.

Preston began the brighter of the two sides and almost caught Barnsley out within minutes of kick-off, Jordan Hugill dispossessed Marc Roberts, but Paul Gallagher's cross was too high.

Neither side could grab a foothold on the game as both sides saw chances wasted. Simon Makienok's header forced a save off Adam Davies from a corner before Barnsley's Matty James drove a shot past the Preston post. Another audacious set piece from Barnsley's Ryan Kent was scraped off the line by Chris Maxwell as the winger almost scored direct from a corner.

The away side went close again, Hugill was played through by Gallagher but dragged his shot past both Davies and the goal.

Armstrong had the first chance of the second period, fizzing a left-footed strike at the Preston goal that Maxwell had to be at his best to save. The bustling forward then tried a daring lob over the Preston keeper from near the half-way line. As Maxwell attempted to dart back to his goal-line, the ball sailed above the woodwork.

Having just lost the ball, Kent battled to win back possession from his marker and crossed for Bradshaw, who looked to drill his shot into the corner, only for a Preston player to clear off the line.

It was an end-to-end finish at Oakwell with neither side able to get a clean shot on goal. Substitute Callum Robinson crossed low to Jermaine Beckford but the former Everton man failed to trouble Davies.

The Barnsley keeper then denied Preston a win at the death, Hugill rose highest following a free-kick and clawed the ball out of the top-right corner.

Barnsley boss Paul Heckingbottom:

"I was pleased with how we coped with their threats but I didn't feel that we did enough to win the game. We didn't cause them enough problems so it is probably a fair result. There were not enough crosses into the box, not enough efforts on goal and that is literally it.

"I said at half-time I was conscious that I didn't want Preston to grind us down, because the team they picked and the message from Simon (Grayson) at the start of the game was that he wanted a tougher, more aggressive performance.

"I don't even speak about the top six. It is about winning the next game, so it has not even entered my head. I just know how much work we have got to do with the players that we have got in here. It is about getting better quickly and seeing how good a team we can be."

Preston boss Simon Grayson:

"There are plenty of games still to go and there will be so many twists and turns from now until the end of the season. We will just keep plodding along as we have done all season.

"We have aspirations to try and get there (the play-offs), but obviously we will need to turn these draws into wins if we are going to make up the ground on teams that are up there already."