John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel: Visitors played their part in an entertaining afternoon
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
A creditable large away following who had travelled up from Devon were silenced in the opening minute when Duane Holmes headed in debutant Liam Millar's cross in one of the quickest goals I have seen at Deepdale in recent years.
If this match had been one of his namesake Sherlock's investigations it could have been titled "The Mysterious Case of The Low Scoring Football Game" with it being puzzling that the number of goals was restricted to three in a really open game which could quite easily have ended up 4-4.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdCredit for such entertainment must be given to our visitors who continued to press and ask our defence questions and showed strong resolve even after my man of the match Millar had doubled our advantage just after midway in the first half.
Millar had been played in for his goal by fellow deadline-day signing Milutan Osmajic, who I thought also had a promising debut.
Our new exciting record signing was denied a dream debut goal in the second half when his powerful downward header was somehow clawed out and saved by the Argyle keeper not long after Plymouth had halved their two goal deficit.
Hopefully Osmajic can become our " Montenegrin Mitrovic " and have more impact here than our last big-money venture into the Balkan transfer market under Alan Irvine when Velice Sumulikoski failed to live up to his hype as the "Balkan Gerrard " and departed after a handful of appearances.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdWhen he left the field after being substituted late on in the game it looked like Osmajic had already become a crowd favourite with the Deepdale faithful.
One thing I certainly felt was that he would not have needed any hot cocoa or warm milk to help him sleep after putting in such a heavy shift following a whirlwind couple of days, which had involved him pitching up for training just 48 hours earlier in a Millers taxi direct from Manchester Airport.
As I left the stadium after this hard fought win passing the hordes of smiling faces and hearing the "We're Preston North End top of the league chants " I felt that similar to the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail in the Mayflower ship from Plymouth in 1620 that I too might be on my way to a New World.