Preston North End vs Queens Park Rangers. Sky Bet Championship.
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Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Preston and QPR at Deepdale as Jimmy Dunne's goal saw Neil Critchley get off to a winning start in charge of Rangers on Saturday.
Saturday 17 December 2022 18:39, UK
Neil Critchley enjoyed the perfect return to Championship management as Jimmy Dunne's second-half strike fired QPR to a much-needed 1-0 win at Preston.
Dunne's 58th-minute goal proved the difference between the two sides as Preston were continually frustrated by the visitors.
The result marked the best start possible for former Blackpool boss Critchley, who replaced Michael Beale in the QPR hotseat after his high-profile departure to Rangers last month.
Preston came into the game on the back of a resounding 4-1 victory over Blackburn at Ewood Park and were looking to make it four straight wins in the league.
But QPR were aiming to resurrect their early-season form, with Critchley taking charge of his first game after being appointed - following a brief spell as Aston Villa assistant - during the World Cup break.
It was a cagey opening and Preston's first half-chance came on 10 minutes when Ryan Ledson played an excellent long ball to Brad Potts but his volley was mis-hit and went well wide.
Minutes later, Ethan Laird created a moment of promise for QPR, cutting into the box before Tim Iroegbunam's shot went wide.
Iroegbunam then had a more convincing effort as his long-range strike hit the post, with the home fans turning rather hostile.
QPR exposed Preston's defence with Lyndon Dykes getting plenty of time in the box before giving the ball to Sam Field whose shot was blocked.
Three minutes before half-time, Ben Whiteman came close for the hosts with his shot coming off the foot of a QPR defender and out for a corner, which came to nothing.
QPR had the first real chance of the second half after 52 minutes with Albert Adomah breaking free on the right-hand side before putting in a pinpoint ball across the box to Chris Willock, who volleyed over.
The visitors took the lead after 58 minutes when the unmarked Dunne nudged the ball home in off the crossbar on the end of a corner.
Preston should have equalised six minutes later when Ched Evans played an excellent lay-off to Ben Woodburn, who was through on goal but his shot one-on-one was saved by Seny Dieng.
The hosts put the pressure on towards the end and Potts' shot after 78 minutes led to calls for a penalty as there appeared to be a possible handball but the appeals were waved away by the referee.
Five minutes later, the visitors came close with Iroegbunam's effort being tipped over by Freddie Woodman in the Preston goal.
Ryan Lowe's side had a very good chance to equalise after 89 minutes but Potts' volley went just wide and the visitors held on for a hard-fought win.
Preston's Ryan Lowe: "It probably should have been 0-0 - they've had a couple of good chances to score and so did we. Ultimately, it's a bit of frustration for us in terms of, if you can't win it don't lose it. Could we have done better? We'll have a look at it, possibly. There's loads of positives, we always take positives out of it.
"The fact of the matter is, when you don't win you think about what you could do better more than the positives because I expect the positives to be good, I expect us to open teams up and get some good chances. I didn't think we've done that enough but there was definitely certain positives. The positive thing was you see the players going right to the end to try and get a result out of it."
QPR's Neil Critchley: "I could not have asked for more from the players, to be honest. They've given me everything all week. I can see that they're a good honest group of players to work with and coming to a team in form, we're out of form. I said to the players that we're not coming here to take a point - we're coming here to win.
"We're not going to be on the back foot, we're not going to be everyone behind the ball and see if we could nick the game on the break, we're going to try and take the game to them and we did that. I thought first half we were very good, had the better of the play and the better of the chances. I actually said to the staff, when you're on top you've got to try and score and we didn't. Thankfully we did in the second half from a corner routine that we worked on yesterday. And then we've had to show a real different side to our game."
