ON the banks of the River Solent, Preston North End picked up their first points of the year, a 1-0 win over Portsmaouth, and hope they have now turned the tide on a recent run of poor results.
Playing a four-three-three formation, North End brought the game to Portsmouth with the strike force of Jon Macken, Brian McBride and David Healy and it all proved too much for the Fratton Park side as Preston dominated the proceedings.
David Healy burst in to the box in the opening exchanges and brought a great save from Aaron Flahavan and in another attack the Preston striker went alone for goal and shot wide when a sideways pass to the unmarked Macken might have been a better option.
Portsmouth came in to the match more as they worked the ball down the flanks and Lee Sharpe and Michael Panopoulos started to look threatening.
Only a brilliant save at the near post by Tepi Moilanen prevented Lee Sharpe's left-footed powerhouse of a shot opening the scoring and for a period of ten minutes the North End defence was under some pressure.
Preston kept their composure and David Healy went very close as he shook off a couple of tackles and then, seeing Flahavan slightly off his line he chipped the keeper and then watched in disappointment as the ball just cleared the crossbar.
But it all came right for North End on 27 minutes.
Rob Edwards hit in a powerful low cross which raced across the goal to David Healy and his first time volley ripped in to the net.
In the second half it became a battle of the two Lee's.
Lee Sharpe of Portsmouth was obviously the player that they wanted to get in to the match but Preston's Lee Cartwright stuck to him like glue and so the danger down the left was snuffed out.
Preston took control and the frustration was clear to see in the Portsmouth side and it all boiled over when a skirmish between Colin Murdock and Lee Bradbury ended with Bradbury kicking the Preston defender in the chest as he was grounded.
The referee had a close up view of the incident and out came the red card for the Portsmouth midfielder. Panopoulos went close for Portsmouth with an angled shot that just cleared the crossbar and two free kicks on the edge of the Preston box were both wasted by Nigel Quashie.
Preston had a chance to add to the scoreline as McBride had a great effort well saved and the Portsmouth keeper was again called upon to stop a powerful shot from Jon Macken.
Preston closed the game down as the referee added four minutes of stoppage time and Portsmouth had no more ideas of how to break down a solid Preston defence.
Colin Murdock and Michael Jackson were excellent at the back, the strike force of Macken, McBride and Healy looked impressive but when you look for a man of the match then look no further than Lee Cartwright.
The Preston midfielder was excellent in defence and in support of the attack and his contribution in keeping Lee Sharpe out of the second half action was impressive.
In his post-match press conference, manager David Moyes said: "We have not played well recently but we did on this occasion.
"We scored a smashing goal, it was a great cross and a wonderful finish.
"I have to day that I was a little disappointed that David Healy didn't end up with a hat-trick."
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