Ipswich Town 1 Preston North End 2

10:44am Sunday 10th August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Preston North End opened their account on the opening day of the season by securing all three points against play off tipped Ipswich Town.

North End had to do it the hard way however. After starting sloppily they went a goal down when Kevin Lisbie beat Sean St Ledger in the air and nodded home a Danny Haynes cross within the first two minutes of the game.

North End seemed shell shocked and reverted quickly to pumping the ball up field rather than playing the ball along the ground. This tactic proved useless against the height and strength of the Ipswich defenders who bustled Simon Whaley and Neil Mellor with relative ease.

Despite the lack of creativity from midfield following the mad few moments after Ipswich’s goal, North End managed to engineer a chance when Paul McKenna blasted the ball straight into Gareth McCauley’s mid rift on the edge of the area.

With North End fans becoming disgruntled with their team’s early performance, Simon Whaley and Billy Jones appeared to create a good opportunity for a cross until Jones seemed to step on the ball and knock it out for a corner, again much to the annoyance of the travelling Preston faithful.

Ipswich continued to press, committing men forward leaving Preston on the back foot, this allowed Kevin Lisbie to strike a weak effort after fifteen minutes.

North End managed to settle down and after good work from Chris Sedgwick on the left wing, Preston managed to draw level. Sedgwick laying off a ball on the edge of the area that Paul McKenna drove past the despairing Richard Wright with a Steven Gerrardesque strike into the top right hand corner.

After such an inspiring moment from captain McKenna, one minute later North End pressed forward with added vigour and enthusiasm and when Sedgwick and Mellor worked an opportunity for debutant Barry Nicholson it looked as though they were going to score a quick fire double. Unfortunately for the Preston fans it went just wide.

The half hour mark gave Ipswich another chance to take the lead when Chaplow seemed to tackle McKenna on the edge of the Preston box, allowing Lisbie to shoot just wide.

After two successive fouls by Ipswich, Preston were allowed to take a quick free kick through Nicholson. The ball was played down the right wing for Jones to drill across the box and Simon Whaley was on hand to blast the ball into the roof of the net from a few yards out.

After half time, Ipswich seemed to come out in front of the 22,037 crowd more determined. They continued to play their slick one touch passing game, which seemed to carve open the Preston defence at times, with Lisbie being the main danger man for the Tractor Boys.

With Preston sitting deep, trying to preserve their lead, Ipswich continued to attack. North End had to soak up a lot of pressure with a lot of last ditch tackles coming in quick succession.

Preston couldn’t seem to get possession of the ball and with almost every time they won the ball back from their Ipswich counterparts they lost the ball with their next pass. Ipswich seemed to dominate possession from this point as they looked to get back into the game.

As North End defended stoutly Ipswich couldn’t find a way through to level the deficit. After 90 minutes Kevin Lisbie appeared to be bundled over in the penalty area, but the referee quickly dismissed the claim for a penalty and Preston went on to win the game 2-1.

After a very slow, poor opening to the game, Preston managed to find their feet and claim all three points from a ground that wasn’t a happy hunting ground for many championship teams last term. A game contested between two good aesthetically pleasing footballing sides ended with all the spoils going to the Lancashire outfit on opening day.

Final Score Ipswich Town 1-2 Preston North End Scorers: Lisbie (Ipswich), McKenna and Whaley