Preston North End kept their hopes of a great escape alive after a 3 – 1 win over relegation rivals Sheffield United at Deepdale.
It was a must win game for both sides but two second half Keith Treacy strikes and a late Nathan Ellington goal secured the win late on despite Jordan Slew slotting home to earlier make it 2 - 1.
Phil Brown’s side were unchanged from the side that drew 1 – 1 away at Doncaster.
Nick Montgomery came in for Sheffield United after his wife gave birth to twins in midweek. Harry Maguire started at centre back after coming off the bench for his debut in the defeat to Cardiff City and youngster Jordan Slew made his first start of season.
The first half was a quiet affair with both teams looking understandably nervous.
Both sides exchanged corners but failed to test either keeper in the opening 20 minutes.
Then on 25 minutes Stephen Quinn had a glorious chance, but he could only find the far touchline after slicing a cut back from Darius Henderson.
The best chance of the half fell to Slew who broke the offside trap but he couldn’t beat Iain Turner who saved low at his near post.
Chris Brown then had Preston’s best chance as he latched onto a defence splitting ball from Hume and although he shrugged off Neill Collins he could only find the side netting.
The game came alive in the second half and the turning point occurred on 49 minutes.
Slew broke the offside trap and squared the ball for Bjorn Helge Riise, younger brother of John Arne Riise to tap in from 2 yards, but he somehow hit the crossbar when it looked harder to miss.
Five minutes later North End punished the Blades.
Treacy’s free-kick from 35 yards evaded everyone including Steve Simonsen and ended up curling into the bottom corner to give Phil Brown’s men a vital lead.
Treacy nearly did it again four minutes later but this time his free-kick rebounded off the crossbar.
On the hour mark, Sheffield United were almost level, but Nick Montgomery’s volley from 12 yards was brilliantly turned over the bar by Turner.
But again, Preston punished the Blades naivety in front of goal as Treacy grabbed his second of the game with a scorcher of a strike.
Man of the match Treacy picked up the ball on the left, cut inside and drilled a left footed drive from 25 yards into the top corner to ease Deepdale nerves.
But five minutes later Slew gave the away-side a lifeline as he slotted the ball into the bottom corner after ping-pong in the north end box.
They were nearly level minutes later, but substitute Danny Philliskirk hit the post after the ball fell to him in the area.
Sheffield United threw everything at North End towards the end, but
Ellington sealed the crucial three points late on.
Hume broke forward on the counter attack and set Ellington through who smashed the ball past the keeper to leave Preston four points from safety with four games to play.
North End manager Phil Brown was thankful for his team’s slice of good fortune.
“Maybe that’s the slice of luck we need and if we can carry that onto the next four games maybe we will win more games than we’ll draw.”
It is surely curtains for Micky Adams’ men, but he did not want to admit defeat.
“There’s no ‘R’ by our name yet, we have just got to keep going.”
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