Preston North End face Man City in friendly as ex-Liverpool striker scores twice

PNE were in action behind closed doors during the international break - taking on the Premier League side

Preston North End beat Manchester City 3-0 in a behind closed doors friendly on Tuesday afternoon.

Layton Stewart (Photo: Ian Robinson/Preston North End)placeholder image
Layton Stewart (Photo: Ian Robinson/Preston North End) | Ian Robinson

The Lilywhites faced a City under-21s side at Euxton, while a young PNE outfit were well beaten by a strong Blackburn Rovers XI - in the Central League Cup - away from home. Preston made nine changes at half time against City, with summer signing Layton Stewart scoring a brace and first year pro Noah Mawene netting the third.

A couple of PNE youngsters got 90 minutes under their belt, but plenty of changes were made as senior players ticked themselves over during the international break. Mads Frokjaer played the second half and impressed, while Stewart's goals were a positive given the recent praise from manager Ryan Lowe. Andrew Hughes and Jack Whatmough also featured after both missing more than a month through injury.

North End were of course without Alan Browne, Milutin Osmajic, Kian Best and Liam Millar, who were all called up by their countries over the break. Kitt Nelson was the only pro to play against Rovers at Brockhall, with Preston's young guns falling to a 7-1 loss as the likes of Niall Ennis, Harry Leonard and Semir Telalovic started for Blackburn.

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