Supporter John Roper's PNE column

Jordan Hugill made a nuisance of himself against QPR

Preston had been behind in the game for almost 90 minutes after an unchallenged headed from Polter had given the visitors the lead in the first five minutes and for much of the game it looked like that would be the winning goal.

The never-say-die attitude of North End once again came to the fore and although we had very few attempts on goal in the game we got the one that mattered in added time.

The crowd were boosted before the game when the name of Jermaine Beckford was among the subs and there was a huge roar inside Deepdale when the Wembley hero was finally introduced with not much more than five minutes of normal time to play.

Looking at the visitor team it was fairly obvious that this is a side that are underachieving based on the reputations of a large number of players in their squad. However the Hoops took the lead when we conceded an unnecessary corner on the North End left and Polter rose unchallenged in the box to give the visitors the lead much to the delight of the 675 travelling fans from West London.

It was a dreadful goal to concede from a Preston perspective and that is the first time we have conceded in the first 15 minutes of a league game all of this season. The goal spurred us into action and although we had plenty of the ball and played some decent football when we were not lumping it up to Hugill, we could not break through a very solid QPR backline.

In the second half North End adopted a more direct approach and I have to say that Hugill won his fair share of headers and I thought the young striker had a decent afternoon.

Eventually Cunningham put over a cross from the left after some good work and Doyle rose to nod the ball purposefully into the net and send the Preston fans in a crowd of 11,322 into rapturous delight.

I’m not sure how much we will remember of this a game when we come to the final analysis at the end of the season but I guess it will probably be best remembered for the reappearance of Beckford after a nine-month absence.

Time for the boys to rest and recuperate over the international break now and get ready for what has become the biggest league away day in 15 years when we play Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park two weeks on Saturday, with close on 7,000 travellers making the short journey to East Lancashire.