Preston North End vs Bristol City. Sky Bet Championship.
DeepdaleAttendance14,929.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston North End and Bristol City at Deepdale on Saturday | Will Keane scores twice as Ryan Lowe's men avoid third straight defeat
Saturday 13 January 2024 19:28, UK
Substitute striker Will Keane struck a sweet double as Preston claimed a 2-0 home win against Bristol City.
The former Manchester United forward made a fine impact from the bench with two goals in the space of 23 second-half minutes as the Lilywhites claimed their first league win since Boxing Day.
Victory also saw Ryan Lowe's side end a worrying run of four defeats in their last five Championship matches having made a flying start to the season.
Defeat for the Robins means they have now not won in their last four matches and last won at Deepdale 13 years ago.
Defender Taylor Gardner-Hickman came close to giving the visitors an early lead but saw his goal-bound shot superbly saved by Preston goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.
Montenegro striker Milutin Osmajic tried his luck from the outside of the box with the hosts' first chance after 19 minutes, but his right-foot strike flew wide of the left-hand upright.
Irish forward Jason Knight thought he had put Bristol City ahead with a thunderous strike, but Preston shot-stopper Woodman pulled off a fine save to tip his effort over the crossbar.
Defender Rob Dickie also saw a header saved by the home keeper, who found himself too busy for his own liking.
Zak Vyner rifled a fierce right-foot shot wide of the right-hand post as the visitors kept pressing for the opener, before Knight smashed over the bar with another excellent chance.
Albanian forward Anis Mehmeti saw his left-foot shot saved by Woodman, who was having a fine afternoon between the posts.
At the other end, Canadian midfielder Liam Millar was denied by a smart block from Robins keeper Max O'Leary, while midfielder Duane Holmes fired over with an angled drive.
Keane, fellow striker Emil Riis and attacking midfielder Mads Frokjaer-Jensen were introduced to spice things up for Preston.
And it worked as they found a spring in their step and were in front for the first time 20 minutes after the triple substitution.
Keane needed just two minutes for his first chance of the afternoon, O'Leary pulling off a fine block to stop his shot flying into the top corner.
The forward went close again five minutes later, firing wide from close range when he probably should have done better.
Mehmeti shot wide for the visitors and had an effort well-saved by Woodman, before Keane finally made the breakthrough.
His clinical strike from the centre of the goal was too good for O'Leary - and not long afterwards he doubled the home side's advantage.
Frokjaer-Jensen had a shot saved as the pressure mounted, before Keane fired into the bottom-right corner with a superb left-foot strike for his eighth goal of the season.
Preston's Ryan Lowe:
"Sometimes when you change formations and personnel your front three need to be in the game. Ours weren't in the first half.
"I just felt we needed another threat up front. My gut feeling is the best thing for me - and I'm just really pleased it worked.
"We haven't won in a couple of games so we didn't want to go out in the second half and be flat again. The substitutions changed it.
"It was a very pleasing victory, the players deserve a lot of credit. We went into the staff room at half-time and I said I had to make bold decisions.
"We mucked in and made some tough decisions bringing people off at half-time, our captain included.
"But I just felt we needed a bit more power at the top end of the pitch. I felt that whoever scored first would go on and win the game - and I wanted it to be us.
"We changed shape and we wanted to be on the front foot. I said to the boys don't wait for something to happen, if they score then our backs would be against the wall."
Bristol City's Liam Manning:
"We need to create more chance, which I'll always say, but we created enough to be ahead at a half-time.
"When you're on top like that you have to make it count - and we didn't. We have to work really hard to score high-level goals, whereas the ones we concede are too easy.
"What you can't do is give easy goals away and not be ruthless at the other end.
"It was difficult to watch in the second half, but in the first half there was a lot of good.
"But it's turning that good into outcomes, which we didn't do.
"We had a couple of terrific opportunities - and from set-pieces - as well as good control for large periods for the first half, but we didn't make any of them count.
"I didn't feel too threatened, but they made three chances at half-time which had a big impact."
