Luton Town vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Kenilworth RoadAttendance9,740.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Luton Town and Preston at Kenilworth Road as Brad Potts scored the only goal of the game to seal victory for North End on Saturday.
Saturday 13 August 2022 18:48, UK
Brad Potts scored a stunning winner as Preston picked up their first league victory of the season with a 1-0 triumph at Luton.
The hosts had the first effort on 10 minutes, as Luke Freeman dragged wide from the edge of the box, before the midfielder's free-kick was met by Carlton Morris, only to see Freddie Woodman gather comfortably.
Preston had the lead on 18 minutes, though, with a magnificent goal from Potts, who met Robbie Brady's deep cross at the back post with a brilliant flying volley that gave Ethan Horvath no chance at all.
Town barely looked like equalising for the remainder of the half, as Preston went closest to a second, James Bree giving the ball away and the experienced Brady denied by a full-stretch Horvath.
After the break, the visitors tried to double their advantage as they continued to prove a goal threat, Jordan Storey rifling over from distance and Brady's free-kick dribbling through to Horvath.
Luton were restricted to desperate pot shots at this point, Jordan Clark's effort taking a big deflection and never testing Woodman.
Morris headed wide when Clark did well to fashion a cross from the left-hand side as the hosts still could not create any meaningful opportunities.
Home substitute Elliot Thorpe sent over a dangerous delivery which eventually dropped to Allan Campbell, who sliced his volley frustratingly wide of the target, while Bree's free-kick drew a crucial block from Ben Whiteman.
With eight minutes left, the Hatters created their best chance of the entire match, Bree's dinked through ball was into the path of the onrushing Cauley Woodrow and he beat Woodman, but could not keep it down, seeing his effort going inches over.
Troy Parrott looked to add to Preston's lead, firing straight at Horvath, before Luton's talisman Elijah Adebayo spun his man well and strode into the box, but shot wastefully over.
On-loan Spurs attacker Parrott might have put the result beyond doubt in the closing stages, manufacturing some space inside the box and then shooting straight at Horvath.
Although Town tried to go long to force an equaliser, it was not their day, and they are still without a victory this term, failing to bounce back from a disappointing Carabao Cup exit against League Two side Newport in midweek.
For the visitors, they saw the game out clinically to record what was a first victory at Kenilworth Road since 1999.
Luton's Nathan Jones: "It's frustrating for a number of reasons. One, we concede a poor goal, they can say it's a good goal, two we've had enough opportunities to get something from the game. We've had enough chances, good chances, opportunities, balls in and around their box, set-plays, enough of the game to have got something from it and then just the flow of the game was really frustrating for us.
"I said to the players before, get the first goal as it's very difficult to chase a game in this weather and in this current climate, and I don't mean just the weather, I mean the way football is played in terms of how much time it takes to do anything. As soon as you go ahead, it's very difficult to really generate the tempo and that was frustrating today on all levels."
Preston's Ryan Lowe: "I just remember seeing him in the air with his two feet and thinking 'what's he doing' and it hits the back of the net. Potts has got fantastic goalscoring attributes, I think he's had that all his career, but in a different role. I'm pleased with one wing-back crossing to the opposite wing-back and finding a goal, that's how we work, we want them in the box.
"If he continues to keep scoring goals like that, I expect the wing-backs to get between five and 10 goals anyway, and he's off the mark with two. I thought the performance was okay, we could have done better in certain situations, but we defended very well and we managed the game very well. You can't come to Luton and go toe-to-toe with them, we knew that, the gameplan was a little bit different to what it normally is because we have to respect a good Luton team that have just missed out on getting into the Premier League last season."
