Plymouth Argyle vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Home ParkAttendance16,646.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Plymouth Argyle and Preston North End at Home Park on Saturday | Liam Millar scores winner as Ryan Lowe seals win on return to Pilgrims.
Saturday 16 March 2024 19:14, UK
Ryan Lowe's Preston reignited their play-off hopes with a 1-0 win at his former club Plymouth.
Substitute Liam Millar scored the decisive goal in the 43rd minute after a sweeping move down the left.
The victory lifted North End up to ninth, five points off sixth-placed Norwich with a game in hand, and condemned Ian Foster's struggling Argyle to a fourth successive home defeat.
The hosts started well, with Ryan Hardie firing wide after latching on to a superb through-ball down the left by Mickel Miller.
Preston boss Lowe was forced to shuffle his line-up early on as Milutin Osmajic was forced off injured after only seven minutes, Millar coming on.
The visitors also lost Brad Potts in the 19th minute, with Layton Stewart taking his place.
But the two changes did little to disrupt Preston's intent and they forced the pace of the game for much of the first half
Millar should have scored in the 20th minute when he latched on to a pass along the edge of the box by Mads Frokjaer-Jensen and raced into the area, chesting the ball down but then firing wide with only goalkeeper Michael Cooper to beat from close range.
But he made no mistake shortly before half-time as Liam Lindsay's deep cross was flicked on by Will Keane and Millar at the far post smashed a volley back across goal and into the corner.
Argyle's best chances came late in the half as they forced a succession of corners, with North End keeper Freddie Woodman at full stretch to tip away Adam Randell's inswinging set-piece before Mustapha Bundu's header from another ball in flew high and wide.
Millar forced a good diving save from Cooper in the 52nd minute as Preston began the second half on the front foot.
Cooper made an even better stop to keep out Jordan Storey's far-post header from a 59th-minute corner.
Argyle's top-scorer Morgan Whittaker then swept his shot wide when well-placed in the box.
Keane's long throw from the left was then gathered 20 yards from goal by an unmarked Stewart, who let fly with a fierce, dipping shot which beat Cooper but smashed off the foot of a post.
Adam Randell went close for Plymouth with a 20-yard strike, but the hosts could not find a leveller.
Plymouth's Ian Foster:
"It is disappointing because we desperately want to win games of football and we desperately want to win games here at Home Park.
"I felt we were quite unfortunate to be behind at half-time. The players gave everything. We fought until the very end.
"We fancied ourselves in the second period, fine margins, but it's the way things are going for us.
"It's a similar situation to last week when we got into good positions and didn't take our chances. We have got to turn chances into goals.
"It does hurt when we don't win. We have an appreciation of how important points are at the moment.
"The break now might do us a little bit of good, with recharging the batteries."
Preston's Ryan Lowe:
"I thought the lads were fantastic from start to finish. Losing Emil (Riis Jakobsen) this morning to a sickness bug and then to lose two important players in the first 20 minutes, you are thinking, 'OK'.
"But I thought the two lads who came on equipped themselves fantastically well and were excellent from back to front. I thought they were brilliant.
"We brought Liam on because we thought he would get in behind them.
"You have to adapt these things and that's what we did. I am full of faith and belief in the boys that are on the pitch.
"(It's a) perfect way to go into the international break and a week off.
