Milutin Osmajic scored his third goal of the season as Preston secured an impressive 1-0 victory over promotion-chasing Ipswich in the Sky Bet Championship.
The 26-year-old bagged an 11th-minute winner from the penalty spot after being fouled in the first instance by Jacob Greaves, just one week on from netting the decisive goal against Leicester.
Preston are now unbeaten in three league matches with two clean sheets but their opponents are contrastingly winless in three, in spite of their expensively-assembled squad.
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna would not have seen too much wrong in terms of effort but would have been disappointed with the lack of killer instinct in and around the box.
Milutin Osmajic celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot against Ipswich
Jaden Philogene flashed a long-range effort narrowly over the crossbar for the visitors within the first minute.
However, following a lively opening from both teams, Greaves clumsily conceded a penalty after bundling into Osmajic and the North End man coolly sent Alex Palmer the wrong way from 12-yards.
A dogged Preston defensive display left a possession-dominating Ipswich frustrated and short of a clear opening for the majority of the first half.
But they could have equalised in the 39th minute as George Hirst volleyed from 10 yards, having got on the end of an inch-perfect curling cross from Jack Clarke.
It was more of the same in the second half with a wayward 25-yard effort from defender Ben Johnson exemplifying Town’s frustration with the hour-mark approaching.
The attacking trio of Clarke, Sammy Szmodics and Philogene were always looking likely to make something happen but the final moment often eluded them as Preston’s back-five shape shut out most avenues.
Kasey McAteer came off the bench for his Ipswich debut and nearly made a quick impression in the 71st minute as he strode onto a loose ball in the Preston box but blazed the ball over from an angle.
At the other end, on a rare foray forward, Thierry Small shifted into shooting range but dragged his effort tamely wide on his right foot in what turned out to be only Preston’s second shot of the entire match.
Home boss Paul Heckingbottom rang the changes to keep energy levels fresh, giving a debut to summer signing Daniel Jebbison in the process.
Ipswich huffed and they puffed but they were up against a very motivated Preston set-up with Lewis Gibson and Andrew Hughes standing out in particular.
Jack Taylor did find room outside the box in second-half stoppage-time but his fierce strike was easily held by Daniel Iversen, who had been given very little to do up until that point.
The managers
Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom:
“I go back to what I was speaking about in pre-season: forget the negativity, why are we talking about what other clubs are spending or this player and that player or why aren’t we spending? If that was important, we’d have lost the game today.
“They’re bringing £14million off the bench. They’ve got unbelievable talent on the bench that couldn’t come on the pitch. If that was the be-all and end-all, we’d have lost that game.
“We’ve signed good characters. We don’t win that game if we don’t sign good people and I think everyone connected with Preston should be proud of every player today.
“We started the game really well, really aggressively and made them defend. We scored early again and that sets the tone and we protected the goal really well.
“We needed half-time and then we came out in the second half really positively again. You only need to get one or two things wrong and then you’re defending in your own half – that’s how good they are.”
Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna:
“(I’m) really annoyed about the result. We wanted to give ourselves and the supporters a better day today.
“We need to do better, that’s my overriding feeling. Every one of us, me first – we need to do better.
“We started quite brightly but we conceded a goal we can’t concede if we want to be a successful Championship team. A really soft goal.
“We don’t defend the goal-kick well enough. We don’t defend the first real ball into our box. If we aren’t stronger in those situations, we won’t be successful this year and that’s clear. We need to face up to that.”
