Ten-man Preston hold on for hard-earned point

Posted Sunday, February 11, 2018 by PA

Ten-man Preston held out for a point in a bruising 1-1 draw at Brentford.

Bees winger Florian Jozefzoon cancelled out Tom Barkhuizen’s opener as North End had to see out the final 16 minutes without Greg Cunningham after the left-back saw red for a second bookable challenge on the Brentford goalscorer.

Barkhuizen opened the scoring in the 54th minute with a whipped cross from the left that eluded everyone and flew just inside the far post.

But the Londoners hit back with a superb Jozefzoon strike eight minutes later as he chested the ball down on the edge of the box and flashed a low drive inside the near post.

Barkhuizen came close to giving the visitors the lead inside two minutes but his goalbound snapshot was blocked by team-mate Callum Robinson.

Romaine Sawyers responded for the Bees with a sizzling low drive from a neat Neal Maupay lay-off which flashed inches wide of the far post.

Brentford’s Josh McEachran was lucky to stay on the pitch after a last-ditch rugby tackle on Robinson as the striker surged through on goal.

It was end-to-end stuff with constant rain making fluent football difficult and allowing Preston to stifle the hosts’ fluent football with a series of niggling fouls.

But it was Billy Bodin who was next to go close after finding space in the box with a 12-yard drive which flew high and wide.

Preston’s Tommy Spurr thought he had given his side the lead midway through the half, but his headed effort was disallowed after he strayed offside from Paul Gallagher’s free-kick.

Brentford had the best chance of the half to break the deadlock three minutes before the break, Nico Yennaris’ one-touch through ball finding Maupay whose first-time effort was blocked by a brave stop from goalkeeper Declan Rudd.

The game burst into life after the break and Brentford saved their best football for after they had gone behind, McEachran driving across goal and just wide from a well-worked free-kick.

The equaliser came after substitutes Alan Judge and Emiliano Marcondes added tempo to proceedings, with Judge’s crosses a constant threat.

Ollie Watkins headed just wide at the far post as he got on the end of a free-kick from the Irishman, and moments later saw his ferocious half-volley from Rudd’s punched clearance shave the outside of the post.

In the last minute Brentford thought they had continued Preston’s dismal run at Griffin Park – losing seven of their last eight – but Judge’s free-kick was tipped onto the post by Rudd to clinch a hard-earned point.