Preston North End 1 Birmingham City 0 (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

Preston North End 1 Birmingham City 0

3:34pm Sunday 14th December 2008

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North End left Birmingham manager Alex McLeish feeling blue after an injury time Jon Parkin goal broke Birmingham hearts.

The only notable team change for Preston saw Eddie Nolan deputise for Billy Jones who couldn’t shake off a hamstring strain in time that he picked up in midweek against Doncaster.

Despite Jon Parkin’s match-winner in said game, the former Stoke man couldn’t force his way into the starting eleven with Chris Brown retaining his place alongside Stephen Elliott.

Former Birmingham midfielder Darren Carter was handed a place in the sixteen man squad for the first time since the defeat to Swansea in November whilst Neil Mellor watched on from the sidelines having not recovered from his hip problem in time.

Preston’s first chance fell after just two minutes from a set-piece.

Ross Wallace was tripped on the left, winning his side a free-kick which the Scot took himself.

The former Celtic man played a one-two with Elliott before putting in a dangerous cross towards the far post.

Maik Taylor punched the ball clear to avert the danger with Chris Brown lurking.

Wallace went close himself just moments later after cutting in on the edge of the area.

Wallace cut on to his weaker right-foot and hit an audacious effort towards goal.

The ball took a deflection which very nearly caught the goalkeeper out before recovering by tipping the ball over the bar to concede a corner.

Birmingham’s first real chance fell after 8 minutes.

Lee Carsley picked the ball up on the edge of the area before hitting a hard driven low effort towards the bottom right hand corner of Lonergan’s goal.

The Preston keeper got a firm hand to hit to parry it out and would have been 1-0 had it not been for Lonergan’s reflexes.

McKenna had a pop at goal from the edge of the area in the 31st minute.

The midfielder picked the ball up on the edge of the box and tried to curl one in the top corner.

The move started when Nolan intercepted the ball and played in Wallace who did well to pick out McKenna.

Lively as ever, Ross Wallace had another effort on goal. Having switched sides with Sedgwick, the on-loan Sunderland winger cut onto his left foot and before unleashing a venomous strike towards goal, Maik Taylor turned the ball away and out for a corner.

The resulting corner came to Chaplow on the edge of the box who tries his luck on the half volley.

The ball whistled over the cross bar and brought an end to a good passage of play.

Just before half-time, a Preston corner-kick came in from the right which fizzed at a decent height across the face of goal.

Everyone seemed to miss it including Elliott who just had to make the slightest of contact and it would have been a certain goal.

Preston were definitely the better side throughout the first period.

The Lilywhites enjoyed some excellent spells of possession and were resolute enough at the back to thwart the attacking threat of Phillips and Bent in particular.

When Birmingham did go forward it was usually through the former Arsenal winger, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who has was a threat throughout.

His pace and trickery has forced the likes of Callum Davidson and Chris Sedgwick to make some superb last-ditch tackles.

Jaidi and Murphy had a couple of chances that they should perhaps have done better with but nothing to suggest that they would deserve to be ahead.

With no changes at half-time, the teams set out the way they commenced the first period of play. Preston’s first chance of the second half fell to Stephen Elliott who picked the ball up on the left hand side before cutting in on this his favoured right-foot.

The former Sunderland man’s effort was wayward but Preston began to ask the questions early.

Wayward attempts on goal seemed to be the theme, certainly in the opening exchanges of the second half, Ross Wallace again the culprit but at least he wasn’t afraid to have a pop.

In the 62nd minute, a superb save from Lonergan thwarts Birmingham and prevents a certain goal.

Murphy put the ball in from the left-hand side towards Kevin Phillips who thought he had put the visitors ahead.

At this point, the field of play was reminiscent of A&E rather than PNE with both Nolan and St Ledger donning bandages round their head whilst Ross Wallace was wrestled to the ground by Nigel Quashie, causing him to limp off.

With the game approaching its final stages, the Deepdale crowd called for the Beast Jon Parkin to come on.

Eventually, on the 83rd minute, the crowd got what they wanted as Chris Brown made way for Jon Parkin and almost immediately, the Beast nearly made an impact.

Paul McKenna showed great vision to thread a defence splitting pass through played to Parkin through who had just the goalkeeper to beat.

Parkin stumbled and in the end Taylor claimed at his feet, much to the displeasure of Parkin and disbelief of the North End crowd.

However, all was not lost as with 91 minutes on the clock, Parkin emphatically volleyed Preston to victory.

Ross Wallace again the provider, put the ball on a plate for Parkin who had the simple task of guiding the ball home sending the Preston supporters into raptures.

With two, agonising minutes left of stoppage time, Preston managed to hang on and in the end deserved their win.

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