Preston North End 2 Ipswich Town 2

7:33pm Saturday 26th April 2008

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The Preston players returned to the field at full time to show their appreciation for the North End supporters after an entertaining draw brought their home season to a close.

A goal each from strikers Chris Brown and Neil Mellor had put Preston ahead after Tommy Miller had opened the scoring for Ipswich.

But Preston relaxed in the final minutes as Jon Walters was allowed to secure a point for Ipswich.

Before the game Alan Irvine admitted that it would be difficult to motivate his players having already secured their Championship status.

And the Preston manager conceded that his side were lacking something in the early stages.He said.

"I think that maybe we didn't have that edge today, I think that the Ipswich goal jolted us into action.

"I am never happy to see a goal go in against us but at least there was a reaction to that."

Alan Quinn forced a fine save from Andy Lonergan in the 11th minute and from the resulting corner the visitors took the lead.

The corner was cleared only as far as Miller on the edge of the area and he shot through a crowd of players into the bottom corner.

The reaction came from Preston who began to play some neat football without finding the finishing touch and were reliant on a lucky break to bring them level in the 35th minute.

Moments earlier Stephen Bywater had saved from Neil Mellor inside the area, but could do nothing about Brown's fifth goal for Preston as his strike from outside the area took a cruel deflection.

Four minutes later Brown should have doubled his tally for the afternoon but headed over from Chris Sedgwick's left foot cross.

The game opened up considerably in the second half as Ipswich searched for the three points to keep them in play-off contention.

Pablo Counago should have scored when through on goal but his shot bounced out off the inside of the post.

Alan Quinn, who was a threat all afternoon for the visitors, then shot just wide from a Walters knock down.

Richard Chaplow and Mellor both should have done better when presented with a sight of goal but both failed to hit the target.

Simon Whaley replaced Lewis Neal in the 77th minute and made an immediate impact. His cross was missed by Richard Chaplow but fell to Mellor who calmly finished into the top corner.

Michael Hart and Neil Trotman slotted into the Preston defence and both made accomplished full debuts.

However the back four switched off three minutes from time as Walters was played through by Owen Garvan and the Ipswich srtiker made no mistake with his finish.

Irvine was happy with the performances of both Trotman and Hart in their home debuts. He said.

"I think they can both be pleased with their games overall, I think they tired but overall they can be pleased."

However their was no place in the squad for Craig Beattie after Chris Brown recovered from injury quicker than expected and returned to the first eleven.