Preston Chuks it away

A 92th minute equailiser gave Bury a share of the points at Deepdale in a 1-1 draw on a warm Saturday afternoon. Chuks Aneke scored on his debut to put the home side 1-0 up with 20 minutes to go, but a stoppage time goal from lateef Elford-Alliyu ensured that Bury didn't depart empty handed and it meant Preston drew at home for the 5th game in a row.

In the first half, Preston were average at best as Bury were unlucky not to be ahead at HT after spurning some decent chances while the closest Preston got to an early goal was from Aneke whose long range shot got a deflection and went over. It was a case of same old same old as the defence continued to be solid and reliable, but very little inroads were made with Trevor Carson being distinctly underworked in the first half

In the second half things improved as Preston started to go forward with more confidence and this pressure eventually paid off as Chucks Aneke fired hike from 20 yards to give Preston the lead and score the first goal at Deepdale since Danny Mayors winner against Hartlepool in February. However the second goal which would have killed the game off never arrived despite Paul Coutts and Neil Mellor going very close and in the end this wastefulness proved to be costly as Elford-Alliya was in the right place at the right time to poke home from two yards after a shot hit the crossbar and bounced perfectly for him to steer past Stuckmann and ensure a share of the points.

Preston are now unbeaten in 5 home games, however all 5 of these games have been draws and Preston have only scored once, so while it shows that we are now a tough team to break down and beat at Deepdale the fact that no wins isn't a great statistic but at the very least we are now accumulating points, albeit slowly but at the very least we have all but guaranteed our place in League One next season, although this is something we would have taken as a given at the start of the season. It was good to see Neil Mellor make his first appearance since the 1-0 win at MK Dons in December and even his presence gave the team a lift and he was unlucky not to score once or even twice during the last 10 minutes.

Tonight Preston have their second home game in a few days as Brentford make the long trip north. When Preston travelled to Griffin Park all the way back in September we were in the midst of the 7 game winning run and recorded an excellent 3-1 win with Neil Mellor scoring twice and Iain Hume getting his name on the scoresheet. A lot has changed since then and there is only a very small chance that Preston will record a similar score tonight, but with Hume almost fully fit and Mellor coming off the bench at least there is a chance we can get upto 50 points before travelling to Sheffield Wednesday for the televised fixture on Saturday lunchtime