Preston North End 1-1 Birmingham City – FLW report as the spoils are shared at Deepdale | OneFootball

Birmingham City rescued a late point on the road against Preston North End but Scott Hogan’s 86th minute goal wasn’t enough to secure a first win in five matches for the Midlands club.

The first chance of the match fell to the Lilywhites and centre-back Andrew Hughes should have had his second goal in as many Championship games.

Ben Whiteman whipped in a delightful ball from out wide after his initial corner didn’t work, it found the head of the unmarked Hughes but the Welshman couldn’t direct it on target.

It was a pretty open game in the first half with lots of space in the midfield, and Neil Etheridge in-between the sticks for Birmingham had a moment of madness as he flew out of his box to head a long ball away.

The loose ball fell to Alan Browne about 40 yards from goal, and the Irishman tried his luck with Etheridge scrambling back towards his line but thankfully for the Philippines international it went wide.

He wasn’t so lucky minutes later though as his punch away from a Whiteman corner landed at the feet of Browne – the Irishman unleashed a shot towards goal and on hand to turn it beyond Etheridge was Patrick Bauer for his third league goal of the season.

Birmingham huffed and puffed in the final third without showing too much guile, but they came out for the second half with a renewed energy and Jordan James was probably unlucky not to find the top corner just minutes after the interval.

His shot was diverted over the bar by the head of Ben Whiteman in what appeared to be a goal-saving clearance by the ex-Doncaster Rovers man but the visitors were getting closer to an equaliser.

It really was an end-to-end game with chances at both ends – North End’s defending being a lot sloppier in the second half than the first.

They had a glorious chance to double their lead though after Emil Riis nutmegged an opposition defender before trying to feed Daniel Johnson through on goal with a one-on-one opportunity with Etheridge.

Unfortunately for the Jamaica international though, Manchester United loanee Teden Mengi got his foot to the ball to snuff the opportunity out with an outstretched leg.

Johnson could’ve had another opportunity for a one-on-one later on in the match when Ched Evans could have played him in – instead PNE’s number nine went on his own and shot straight at Etheridge.

And all of North End’s wasted chances came back to haunt them as four minutes from time it was Blues substitute Scott Hogan who headed home an equaliser for the away side, just minutes after entering the pitch as part of a triple substitution.