Portsmouth 1-0 Preston North End as it happened: Andre Dozzell strike settles Fratton Park clash

The Lilywhites were bullied on their visit to Fratton Park last season; the hope and expectation from manager Paul Heckingbottom was that they would offer a far better showing after a pleasing start to the season. A double blow was landed to PNE, though, with top scorer Milutin Osmajic and Tottenham Hotspur loan man Alfie Devine both ruled out through injury.

Both sides negotiated the opening exchanges in scrappy and scruffy fashion, with a Daniel Jebbison flicked effort and John Swift free-kick the only real goal mouth action during the first half-an-hour. Thierry Small, who had offered as much attacking hope as anyone for Preston, then shaped inside and drove a swerving shot just wide of the far right corner.

North End had restricted John Mousinho’s men to precious little, other than the occasional dangerous cross from former Lilywhite Josh Murphy. Not long before the break, one of those picked out star striker Colby Bishop but Daniel Iversen produced a magnificent reflex save to deny him from close range. That looked set to get PNE in with it goalless at the break, only for Deja-vu to strike for the Danish shot-stopper.

In the first home game of the campaign, against Leicester City, Iversen made a similar high quality stop - only to be picking the ball out of his net a few seconds later. From the resulting corner the ball was worked to Andre Dozzell on the edge of the box. The midfielder swung his leg at the ball, connected sweetly and saw his effort crash home via a deflection off Michael Smith.

Preston hadn’t offered enough in the first 45 minutes but there was instantly a more positive look about the team once play resumed. Small was unable to trouble Nicolas Schmid with a volley at the back post, after Stefan Thordarson had smartly snuck in behind Pompey’s defence. At the other end, the Lilywhites were let off the hook when Murphy dragged a snapshot wide of the bottom left corner.

The vast majority of the half, after that, followed a similar pattern with PNE - boosted by the introductions of Lewis Dobbin and the returning Mads Frokjaer - pushing for an equaliser but, ultimately, struggling to create clear-cut opportunities. North End enjoyed lots of territory and worked crossing positions, but Schmid remained fairly untested. A placed, first time effort over the crossbar from Dobbin, late on, was their last chance to salvage a point on the south coast.

Attendance: 20,226 (748 away) PNE starting XI: Iversen; Storey (Storey 88’), Gibson, Hughes, Valentin, Thordarson (Frokjaer 67’), Whiteman, McCann, Small, Jebbison (Dobbin 67’), Smith. PNE unused subs: Walton, Lindsay, Vukcevic, Carroll, Gryba.