AFTER two away games which produced just one single point, Preston North End were hoping for better results from home games against Brentford and Liverpool.

Brentford, who had beaten North End five days earlier, had the reputation of being one of the most difficult sides to overcome in the First division.

And so it proved as they departed from Deepdale happy in the fact they had won a point in a 1-1 draw after defending for most of the game.

Although PNE started well they apparently sprayed the ball around at too quick a pace and lost a bit of accuracy in their approach work.

Even so Preston took the lead in the 17th minute by way of Dougal following a freekick given for a foul on Frank O'Donnell. The visitors from London equalised, again from a free-kick, when centre forward McCulloch out jumped the North End defence, with Harry Holdcroft stranded.

For long spells Preston hammered away at the Brentford goal area in preference to relying on the football skills they were capable of. Holdcroft, Beattie, Lowe, Shankly, Smith, Milne, Dougal, Beresford, O'Donnell (F), Fagan, O'Donnell (H).

Brentford: Mathieson, Brown, Poyser, McKenzie, James, Sneddon, Hopkins, Scott, McCulloch, Eastham, Reid. Attendance: 21,746.

North End without a win since the opening game of the season reinstated 'Bud' Maxwell as leader of the attack in preference to Frank O'Donnell who was switched to the inside left berth.

Fagan took Beresford's place at inside right. The expectant Deepdale faithful were silenced within a minute of the kick-off as Nieuwenhuys gave Liverpool a shock lead.

Due to the re-organisation of the Preston attack Liverpool took advantage of the situation but could not add to their early success.

Eventually North End settled down and started to blend together better and equalised after 33 minutes through Maxwell who scored with a left foot shot.

After an hours play Maxwell chased a lobbed pass down the centre and slipped around the centre half so quickly that he had the ball in the net before the goalkeeper could move.

North End, prompted by Shankly, went further ahead four minutes later when Maxwell, full of running, completed his hat-trick with a neat header after F.O'Donnell had gone close to scoring. Maxwell's individual touches and his keenness to score gave North End's attack the penetrative power it had lacked in earlier matches.

He had more than justified the management's move in altering the attacking formation.

Eventually Hugh O'Donnell made it 4-1 finishing off a good move between himself and Dougal.

PNE: Holdcroft, Beattie, Lowe, Shankly, Smith, Milne, Dougal, Fagan, Maxwell, O'Donnell (F), O'Donnell (H).

Liverpool: Kemp, Harley, Dabbs, Rogers, Savage, McDougall, Nieuwenhuys, Balmer, Howe, Eastham, Hanson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.