Callum Lang bagged an early brace as Preston edged past local rivals Blackburn 2-1 at Deepdale. The 27-year-old opened the scoring with a poacher’s finish in the ninth minute before nodding in a 28th-minute second. Stanley Mills accidentally halved the arrears early in the second half with an unfortunate own goal on just his second Preston start but his team held on for their first win of the season. Preston fell behind early on in their last match with Bristol City and Daniel Iversen had to make vital saves twice in the opening five minutes here, first backpedalling to claw Yuri Ribeiro’s looping corner off the line and then standing tall to block Todd Cantwell one-on-one after the former Norwich man latched onto Adam Forshaw’s deflected pass.
After those initial scares, North End supporters were up off their seats in jubilation as Lang ghosted in at the back post to fire Delano Burgzorg’s excellent drilled delivery across Aynsley Pears and into the corner. Tony Mowbray would have been left scratching his head at how his men were behind and Blackburn continued to probe with Ryoya Morishita having their best opening on 23 minutes, linking up well with Andri Gudjohnsen before seeing his shot from the centre of the box flash over the bar via a slight deflection. Incredibly, the visitors went two behind in the simplest of ways as Lang connected with Jordan Thompson’s inswinging free-kick before Pears, nicking it past the 28-year-old stopper to double North End’s advantage. Leo Leroy wasted a golden chance to get Preston’s third with a poorly weighted through-ball to Burgzorg as Blackburn’s defence were on the ropes and, at the other end, Morishita skied well over after more good link-up with Gudjohnsen.
Blackburn started the second half the same as the first, on the front foot, only this time they got their just deserts in the 51st minute as Ryan Alebiosu’s cross took a nick off Lewis Gibson and team-mate Mills turned it into his own net under pressure from Dapo Afolayan. Preston could have restored their two-goal cushion on the hour as Leroy found Burgzorg with just Pears to beat but the goalkeeper got a glove on the Suriname striker’s shot. Jayden Fevrier came on for the visitors and on 66 minutes, two minutes after his introduction, rattled the bar with an audacious effort from the corner of the box. The basketball-like nature of the game continued in the 72nd minute as Kristi Montgomery blocked bravely from Alfie Devine with the attacker’s low shot from Harry Clarke’s centre destined for the corner.
Iversen had to turn Cantwell’s swivelling shot to safety before making a similar stop to deny Fevrier shortly afterwards, but Preston held on to the spoils.
