Preston North End 0-3 Hull City: Milutin Osmajic red card compounds dreadful defeat
It was a night to forget for the Lilywhites.
Preston North End suffered a 0-3 home defeat at the hands of fellow play-off contenders Hull City on Tuesday.
Former PNE loan man Liam Millar opened the scoring after a fast counter from the visitors, before Akin Famewo doubled the lead with a powerful finish on the stroke of half time. Shortly after the interval, Oli McBurnie scored an acrobatic effort to compound North End’s woes after the hosts had freshened things up at the break.
Milutin Osmajic saw red late on for headbutting John Lundstram in the last major action of a terrible night for PNE. The result is North End’s third successive defeat across all competitions, all of those at home without yielding a PNE goal.
McBurnie’s header for the Tigers early on was well held by Jack Walton. PNE skipper Ben Whiteman then saw his low effort on the edge of the box narrowly miss the target, before Famewo forced an impressive save from Walton. With 20 minutes gone, Thierry Small sent an inviting cross into the box which only just evaded Michael Smith.
Pol Valentin delivered another searching ball with promise just over the half hour mark but Ivor Pandur pushed it behind for a corner, the result of which was a blocked Small shot and the chance for Hull to launch a deadly counter-attack.
The ball found Daniel Akintola, who burst down the right side of the pitch with North End players yards away from him. He made his way into the box, took his time to find Millar waiting in the six-yard area and the Canadian applied the simplest of finishes past Walton, who was anticipating a Akintola shot.
The Tigers made it two just before the break, from a corner which PNE failed to fully clear. A cross on the follow-up was sent in, McBurnie got a connection, brought it down, turned and found Famewo, who thumped a shot into the top left corner.
Paul Heckingbottom made a trio of changes at half time in the hope it would turn around his side’s fortunes, but just four minutes after the restart, Hull got their third of the evening - courtesy of an overhead kick from Oli McBurnie, after a ball in from a substitute of their own in Yu Hirakawa.
North End broke quickly, shortly after the hour mark and Osmajic had acres of space after a clever pass from Whiteman. He had Daniel Jebbison as an option in the middle but chose to go for goal himself at the near post, where Pandur made a comfortable save.
McBurnie looked to get his second 72 minutes in but his effort from a tricky angle found the side netting. Joe Gelhardt forced a slightly awkward save from Walton moments later, with PNE’s shot-stopper only just managing to turn the striker’s low drive round the post.
In the final moments of the game, Osmajic was shown a straight red card in the aftermath of a major scuffle between the two sides, which saw him headbutt Lundstram. Tensions continued off the pitch following the Montenegrin’s dismissal with coaching members from both teams sent off.
Attendance: 14,174 Preston North End starting XI: Walton, Storey, Gibson, Offiah, Valentin (Lewis 46’), Devine, Whiteman (c) (McCann 74’), Thompson (Potts 74’). Small (Dobbin 46’), Smith (Jebbison 46’), Osmajic. PNE unused subs: Cornell, Lindsay, Frokjaer, Nelson.