Iain Hume was the hero as his two goals made it three-back-to-back wins for Preston North End after a breathtaking 2 – 1 win over Swansea City at Deepdale.
Hume despatched a 2nd minute penalty after stand-in captain Billy Jones was brought down by the Swansea keeper before Ashley Williams equalised with a pin point header.
But Hume snatched it late on with a goal that was fit to win any match.
Despite another win, manager Phil Brown continues to focus on task:
“That’s the third straight win, but we’ve got to keep our feet on the floor.
“ I’m still refusing to look at league tables.”
South African International Bongani Khumalo made his debut at centre half for Preston after signing on loan from Tottenham Hotspur in replace of the injured Sean St Ledger. Barry Nicholson also got a start in centre midfield.
Brendan Rodgers made two changes from the side that beat Nottingham Forrest 3 – 2 in their last game. Captain Garry Monk started at right back after recovering from a long term knee ligament injury and Darren Pratley came in for his 250th league appearance in replace of Stephen Dobbie.
Preston started this game similar to where they left off against Coventry in their last and inside the first 2 minutes they got themselves a penalty.
A diagonal ball over the top from Keith Treacy was met by the overlapping Jones who was brought down by Swans stopper Dorus De Vries.
De Vries was only booked when he could have easily been shown a red.
Hume stepped up and as cool as you like tucked the penalty into the bottom left corner for his ninth of the season.
Pratley almost equalised for the visitors five minutes later, but he volleyed inches wide of Turner’s left post.
The home fans were almost in dreamland when Keith Treacy's left-footed drive hit the crossbar.
North End then had two glorious opportunities to double their lead both in the space of four minutes.
First a route one ball from Craig Morgan sent Eddie Johnson through down the middle, but De Vries got a hand to Johnson’s lobbed attempt.
Then an even better chance fell to Treacy who when clean through one on one with De Vries volleyed over from inside the area after another long ball this time from Darren Carter.
Preston were duly punished for their missed chances midway through the first half.
Against the run of play, Mark Gower’s free kick from the right was looped back in by Scott Sinclair and Williams was there to head in from 5 yards after his first attempt was blocked.
Preston were close to re-taking the lead on 38 minutes after Carter’s 30 yard curling strike bounced off the crossbar.
Into the second half and it was Gower’s turn to be denied by the cross bar after a curling free-kick from 30 yards look destined for the top corner.
A minute later Preston threatened as Carter’s volley into the ground was well saved by De Vries and Barry Nicholson could not put away the rebound.
The home-side continued to press and you wouldn’t of been mistaken in thinking it was Preston who were pushing for promotion.
Ian Ashbee and Hume both went close before Hume’s sublime winner on 83 minutes sent Deepdale into raptures for the second successive match.
Hume picked up the ball on the half way line, took on three Swansea players before slotting the ball under De Vries to heave Preston off the bottom of the table for the first time since November.
Phil brown thought it was a great game and rightly praised man on the match Hume:
“We’ve just witnessed a great football match, it’s been exciting, but we rightly came out with the points today.
“Brilliant absolutely brilliant.
“How he had the energy to get round and finish was beyond me, but he deserved that winning goal.”
Brendan Rodgers on the other hand admitted his team didn’t deserve anything from the game and bemoaned the Deepdale pitch:
“We can’t be too disappointed because we were poor defensively today.
“Today was one of those off days and it shows any team can punish you.
“The pitch certainly didn’t look like that for the under 21’s so there wasn’t any work done on it, it’s not cut”
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