Ben Pearson joins the Preston North End goalscoring party

The Preston midfielder was on target in last week’s 5-1 victory against Barnsley, sprinting from the edge of his own penalty box to keep up with Tom Barkhuizen’s break on the left and meet his ball to the far post.

It was only his second North End goal, the other coming three years before in a 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Deepdale.

Pearson scored his other three goals in senior football for Barnsley.

He had two loans there from Manchester United and the three goals he scored all came in victories – against Port Vale, Gillingham and York City.

When Pearson scores next for PNE, the opposition manager could be forgiven for sweating under the collar.

This week, Daniel Stendel left Barnsley within three days of losing at Deepdale.

When Pearson scored against Villa in October 2016, Roberto Di Matteo was out of the door in the same sort of timescale.

In finding the net last week, Pearson became the 12th different scorer for Preston in all competitions this season.

He joined Louis Moult, Andre Green, Joe Rafferty, Paul Huntington and Patrick Bauer in scoring once.

Daniel Johnson leads the way with seven goals – four of them penalties – all in the Championship.

Josh Harrop has five, with three coming in the league and two in the League Cup.

Tom Barkhuizen has four in total, two in the league and two in the league, with Sean Maguire netting three goals in the Championship.

Paul Gallagher has scored two Championship goals, as has Billy Bodin.