NORTH End nicked a victory with a smash and grab raid at local rivals North End, partly thanks to the determintion of striker Kurt Nogan, who made the Burnley boo-boys eat their words as he scored the only goal of the game to send the Clarets sinking further down Division Two..

Burnley went into the match on the back of two crushing home defeats, but they brushed it all aside as they came at Preston in the early stages and on-loan Paul Cook was pulling the strings in midfield.

Burnley, urged on by their noisy supporters, looked to have taken the lead when Andy Payton showed some neat control out on the right.

He cut inside past Ludden and with everyone expecting him to play the ball back to Glen Little, he hit a powerful low shot that beat the diving David Lucas, but smashed against the post and came back into play.

After a Sean Gregan attempt fizzled out, Burnley hit North End again when a defence-splitting pass sent Micky Mellon clear in the box. With two players either side of him, he opted to shoot and tamely sent the ball to Lucas.

Nogan had a chance when the Burnley defenders were slow to clear on the edge of the box and the Preston striker hit in a powerful shot which went wide of the post.

Mark Rankine was making some telling runs into good positions and David Eyres was linking well with Basham and Ludden, trying to open up the Burnley defence, but that crucial final pass seemed to be lacking.

Afte their half-time briefing with Moyes, PNE upped the pace, without injured skipper Gregan, but it was Burnley who almost scored as Graham Branch put over a cross to the far post which Glen Little failed to capitalise on.

Then a lovely bit of individual skill by Nogan turned the match. Brass played a short free kick to David, the Burnley central defender, who hesitated in playing the ball upfield, Nogan got in a challenge and sprinted away down the left flank to what looked like an impossible position with no-one up in support.

From 35 yards and at an extremely difficult angle he saw that Crichton was slightly off his line and send a brilliant shot curling high over the keeper into the net for a goal of sheer class, his 20th of the season and boy, did Preston party!

Moments later Steve Basham was sent clear of a static Burnley back four with only Crichton to beat, but his shot hit the keeper instead of the back of the net.

Still Burnley weren't beaten and it was only thanks to class defending from Jackson and Murdock which kept PNE ahead.

Branch was having a fine match and he set up a chance for Little to hit in a low shot which beat Lucas but was cleared off the line by Dominic Ludden.

Despite all Burnley's efforts, some excellent defending by Preston kept them out and North End held on to the lead to the final whistle and captured those priceless points. The final score was Burnley 0 PNE 1.

Burnley were unlucky not to take something from the match but Preston were magnificent in defence.

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