Crystal Palace climbed out of the Championship drop zone after a 3-1 home victory against Preston.
Hosts turn around deficit to defeat Preston
Crystal Palace climbed out of the Championship drop zone with an impressive 3-1 victory against Preston at Selhurst Park.
The London outfit, who were dragged into the relegation fight after going into administration in January, went behind with less than 10 minutes gone as Keith Treacy struck for the visitors.
But goals from Neil Danns and Darren Ambrose either side of the half-time break turned the game in Palace's favour.
The contest was then put beyond doubt with a little over five minutes left on the clock as Calvin Andrew struck the hosts' third of the match.
The Eagles have taken an impressive seven points from their last three games to drag themselves out of the bottom three places.
They are now only four points behind a faltering Preston, who will be glancing uneasily over their shoulders until they get at least one more win on the board.
Close calls
Palace almost got off to a dream start after just 60 seconds when Sean St Ledger failed to deal with a long clearance from goalkeeper Julian Speroni and Stern John fired narrowly over.
They came even closer to opening the scoring in the seventh minute when Ambrose swung in a corner and Paddy McCarthy's header was cleared off the line by Tom Williams.
But Palace were caught off-guard in the ensuing Preston counter-attack after skipper Shaun Derry was caught in possession, leaving three attackers to bear down on defender Matt Lawrence.
Paul Coutts played the ball in to Treacy and he was able to coolly slide it beyond an exposed Speroni.
The Eagles attempted to hit back and North End goalkeeper Andy Lonergan, making his 200th career appearance, marked the milestone with a superb reaction save to keep out Andrew's near-post header.
But Lonergan was beaten five minutes before the break when Preston failed to deal with Andrew's cross and Sean Scannell nodded the ball into the path of Danns, who poked in his ninth goal of the season from close range.
Appeal
Palace felt they should have had a penalty in first-half stoppage time when Elliott Ward appeared to handle in the area but referee Roger East ignored the appeals.
But they only had to wait until five minutes after the restart to take the lead thanks to a surging run from Danns, who charged into the Preston box and pulled the ball back for Ambrose.
The midfielder smashed his shot against the underside off the crossbar and just beyond the line for his 19th goal of the campaign.
Andrew could have given his side some breathing space when Ambrose sent him scampering through but his finish was too close to Lonergan.
But the former Luton striker finally got his name on the scoresheet to seal the win six minutes from time as he produced a close-range finish past Lonergan after more good work from Ambrose.
The result moves Paul Hart's side up to 20th position in the Championship table, ahead of fellow strugglers Watford and Sheffield Wednesday.
