Preston bounced back for the defeat at Ninian Park to see off Doncaster Rovers in a close encounter at Deepdale.

Jon Parkin had been on the pitch just six minutes when he towered above all to head home a Ross Wallace cross in the 82nd minute to give North End the win.

Despite early doubts, Brian Stock started in the centre of midfield for Doncaster making his first appearance at Deepdale since his 2007 summer departure. Key team changes for Preston saw striker Stephen Elliott step in to replace Neil Mellor in attack with Karl Hawley taking his place amongst the substitutes.

Despite the steady pace, the Lilywhites nearly went ahead as soon as the 7th minute when a Preston corner, taken by Ross Wallace, flashed across the face of goal. Richard Chaplow was waiting at the far post but he, and everyone around, seemed to stop and watch the ball go out for a goal kick.

Doncaster themselves had a good chance early on. James Coppinger looked to get in behind the Preston defence but Sean St Ledger showed great composure to step in and avert the danger and in the end, Andy Lonergan cleared.

During the opening exchanges, Preston seemed to be taking a cautious approach to the game and were very measured in their build-up. After the defeat to Cardiff at the weekend, it looked like the players didn’t want another bad run to start and were taking fewer risks than perhaps they would normally.

Despite Preston’s early control, the best chance fell to the visitors. A cross from James O’Connor from the right was met by the head of Sam Hird. Hird made good contact with the header and if it had been either side of Lonergan, it would have been a certain goal and against the run of play.

Preston’s last chance of the half fell to Callum Davidson. After counterattacking Rovers’ last surge towards goal with the aforementioned header from Hird, Davidson found himself on the edge of the Doncaster penalty area and in a position to hit a vicious, low-driven effort just inches past the left hand post of Neil Sullivan.

After the interval, Preston were straight out of the traps and looked to have a real sense of intent and urgency. In the opening minutes of the second half, Preston peppered the Doncaster penalty area but were shortly back to how they ended the first. With chances few and far between, Preston’s only remember-able chance came from a goal mouth scramble. St Ledger played in Chris Brown who shot from point black range. The ball was beaten away and out for a corner but in the end came to nothing.

Having not had much luck on the left flank, Wallace shifted sides. The former Celtic man went down the right hand side, cut in on to his left foot and dinked a ball in towards Mawene. The Frenchman couldn’t quite connect with his header and the ball in the end went over the bar with no real pace on it.

After coming on as a late substitute, Jon Parkin’s first of two key chances came in the 80th minute when skipper Paul McKenna found the Parkin on the edge of the area. With his back to goal, the former Stoke striker put the ball onto his right foot before hitting a hard effort at Neil Sullivan’s goal. The ball sailed wide but Parkin was showing what he can do.

His best, and match winning chance came just two minutes later and six minutes after coming on as a sub. Ross Wallace ushered the ball onto his favoured left foot before lofting a ball towards the back post where Parkin was lurking. The ‘beast’ towered above everyone else and assertively headed home Wallace’s cross. Parkin was greeted with a chorus of ‘Beast’ which echoed around a Deepdale full of ecstatic Preston fans.

Doncaster’s Stuart Elliott very nearly left those Preston fans with their hearts in their mouths in the closing stages. In the 90th minute, the substitute hit an audacious effort from 30 yards which saw Andy Lonergan scrambling towards his far post. Lonergan, much like the Deepdale crowd, was clearly relieved to see the ball whistle past the post.

In the end the win was justified having enjoyed the majority of the possession throughout the game. Doncaster may have felt a little hard done by having defender resolutely for the vast majority of the game but can take some consolation knowing that they made it difficult for Preston.