Preston North End vs Brentford. Sky Bet Championship.
DeepdaleAttendance12,873.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at Deepdale
Saturday 14 September 2019 18:28, UK
Preston moved into the Sky Bet Championship play-off positions with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Brentford with goals from Sean Maguire and Tom Barkhuizen.
Maguire's early goal handed the Lilywhites the advantage at Deepdale, while Barkhuizen struck following the break against a Bees side who lacked a cutting edge in the final third.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank named an unchanged starting team and Alex Neil made four alterations from the Preston side that drew against Nottingham Forest last time out prior to the international break.
Maguire's penalty appeal after going down under Mathias Jensen's challenge was not entertained by referee David Coote.
But the attacker had his reward moments later when he found himself in space in the box to control Ryan Ledson's cross and tucked past David Raya inside five minutes.
A slick response from the Bees saw top scorer Ollie Watkins slip in Said Benrahma whose lob over Declan Rudd was cleared by the Preston rearguard.
Pontus Jansson's key challenge at the other end put off Billy Bodin who blasted into the stands, while goalkeeper Raya stood strong to deny the ex-Bristol Rovers man before 10 minutes.
Bryan Mbeumo wasted a great opportunity after going one-on-one but the Bees winger's heavy touch let him down as Rudd collected the loose ball.
Sergi Canos led a Brentford counter-attack after the half hour to the edge of the box but dinked a low effort well off target, before Mbeumo found the stands with a volley 10 minutes before the break.
Benrahma unleashed a fierce effort from distance three minutes before the interval which stung Rudd's hands as the hosts went into the break in front.
Mbeumo improved following the restart and curled an effort onto the roof of Rudd's net inside the opening few minutes as Brentford continued to enjoy the bulk of chances.
Preston stopper Rudd denied Watkins from an acute angle after 52 minutes following a neat exchange of possession with Benrahma, with the latter's dangerous free kick from around 30 yards before the hour curling just wide as the Bees searched for an equaliser.
Christian Norgaard's shot from outside the penalty area nearly crept in off Ben Davies' deflection and had Rudd rushing to ensure it did not as the London side continued to press.
But the Lilywhites grabbed their second with 20 minutes remaining after a free Darnell Fisher on the right slid in a low cross for Barkhuizen to slot into an empty net following more questionable Brentford defending.
Barkhuizen slotted in Maguire on the break but found Jansson in the way to deny a one-on-one opportunity before the end.
The victory was Preston's third in four league games, while Brentford slip to 18th in the table after seven matches so far.
Alex Neil: "I thought it was a tough game. I think tactically they're probably the hardest team in the league I would say at the moment to play because of their shape, in terms of how you need to play. I think that we knew the first 20 to 30 minutes was really important.
"We wanted to play on top of them and force ourselves on to them, try and blitz them and get a couple of goals. I thought we should have done that. We get one goal, Billy (Bodin) also gets in behind three times down that side and we should have done better. I think that we were really brave in terms of how we set up. We wanted to be aggressive. We knew that they were going to play around and through us at times and we spoke about just narrowing and compacting on the edge of the box."
Thomas Frank: "I think that the best team won the game on the day. I think Preston were better than us. I think the game was played on their terms, more than on our terms. We didn't control the game well enough, and why we didn't do that there was two reasons, I would say.
"We didn't win enough duels and second balls, especially in the middle of the pitch. When we had the opportunities to create something, we lacked the quality on the day, decision making and simple passing mistakes."
