Preston 2-3 Sheffield United: Sydie Peck's hat-trick sees Blades to victory
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston North End and Sheffield United at Deepdale on Tuesday night; Sydie Peck scores a first career hat-trick in Blades victory.
Tuesday 3 November 2026 23:00, UK
Sydie Peck bagged a first-half hat-trick as Sheffield United edged past Preston 3-2 at Deepdale.
The 22-year-old inadvertently equalised with an intended cross in the 27th minute, put his team ahead with a gorgeous second from just outside the box 10 minutes later, and sealed his treble with a tap-in on the stroke of the interval.
Leo Leroy had put the hosts in front after just two minutes with a clinical finish and substitute Callum Lang set up a grandstand finish with a composed 77th-minute consolation.
It is the first time Sheffield United have managed back-to-back wins this season but that makes it just one point out of 18 for new Preston manager Graham Alexander.
North End had made a fantastic start as Andrew Hughes stole the ball off a sleeping Tahith Chong before laying it off to Andrija Vukcevic, whose cutback was scuffed by Andrew Moran but then emphatically slammed home from the centre of the box by Leroy.
Chong nearly atoned for his error inside 10 minutes with a purposeful run and wicked delivery that Ben Brereton Diaz thumped just over the bar on the turn from a similar position to where the goal had been scored.
Preston's strong start was marred by the loss of Johnny Kenny, who left the pitch clutching his hamstring for Lang after just 13 minutes, and the nature of the equaliser was a bitter pill to taste as Peck's teasing cross evaded everyone and sneaked into the far corner.
There was nothing inadvertent about Peck's 37th-minute second, however, as he nicked the ball away from a stranded Daniel Iversen, chasing Brereton Diaz's ball forward before showing remarkable composure to find the top corner from 20 yards, firing past the despairing Preston keeper and six white and blue shirts that had tried to recover.
In first-half stoppage time, two became three for the homegrown talent and it was a poacher's finish to prod Romelle Donovan's driven cross over the line from point-blank range to put the Blades in control.
Liam Lindsay came on as part of a double change Alexander made at the interval and the 31-year-old was left for dead within minutes as Chong stormed inside from the right before curling just wide, and his rude awakening continued in the 51st minute as Peck nearly placed Hamza Choudhury's tee-up into the net for his fourth, but Iversen parried to safety.
As the game looked like fizzling out for the Lilywhites, two of the substitutes combined when Alfie Devine, who came on for Jusef Erabi just after the hour, rolled the ball across a day-dreaming Blades defence and Lang slotted a first-time effort into the corner, but a comeback never materialised.
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The managers
Preston's Graham Alexander:
"There are times when we might look like we don't care or we're not fully committed but we are. We're just human beings and if you have that period for a long time, six to eight months or something (of struggling) and it can wear you down a bit but it's only us who can get ourselves out of it.
"We have to find a way of creating that mentality, that anger, because that's what I thought we saw in the second half. There was an anger about our team. A controlled anger.
"We conceded a goal and then, I don't think it's an intentional drop of effort, I think it's just a human-nature thing in that we maybe feel a bit sorry for ourselves a little bit and maybe lose a bit of confidence."
Sheffield United's Chris Wilder:
"His all-round performance was excellent. (We) were talking about playing him higher, putting him in the box and making forward runs. He's done it right throughout his young career - scored goals - and he needs to score more.
"I spoke to him about Leicester last season, where he got a couple, and he's got that in his locker. He's a touch disappointed because he's had a couple more opportunities in the second half. We got into some great positions.
"(Tahith) Chong should score, Sydie possibly should score, I'm not going to be greedy and say every opportunity we have we should score from but we created enough to take the game away from the opposition. Sydie will get the headlines and rightly so."
