By pnefans.co.uk
February 19 2005

Preston drew 1-1 with league leader Ipswich Town tonight, North End fans would of settled for a point before this game, but at the end of it we have to feel as though we were robbed..... North End gave a great show tonight for the sky cameras, earning a point at home to the league leaders Ipswich Town.

We totally dominated this evenings game and had it not been for a poor referees decision we may well of had all three points.

We looked lively right from the start, creating chances and closing Ipswich attacks down quickly, the only concern early on was whether we could sustain the same work rate for 90 mins.

Preston had a couple of good first half chances with Mckenna having the best one having been set up superbly by the very lively Nugent, but his shot was blocked by 3 Ipswich defenders.

Nugent started for Preston for the first time this evening and was he who scored Preston's goal pickin up the ball just inside the Town half, he burst past two Ipswich players before slotting the ball into the corner of the net from 12 yards.

Half time saw Ipswich make two changes to try to get back into the game, and having been on the back foot for much of the first half looked well up for the fight in the second. Then came the games biggest turning point as PNE clearly should of had a penalty as the Ipswich defender handballed, and right in front of the ref, quite why it was'nt given only the ref himself will know.

Towns equaliser came on 69mins when a shot from Miller was only parried by Ward and Miller himself poked home the follow up. Both teams had chances to win the game after that, but both had to settle for a point, we have to be pleased with a draw to the best team in the division but after watching the game we all know we could very easily of had all three.

North End also had Gavin Ward stretchered of as a result of a challenge from Town's Ian Westlake, which saw 19 year old Neil make his Preston debut in goals.

Of the incident Preston boss Davies said "he has got a very bad facial injury, he doesn't look bad at the moment but he is in a very bad way," "I have got to say that I would like to see the television replay, I thought it was a late challenge, I could be wrong but I will have to have a look at it again and it was a disappointment to us because he performed very well."

North End have now lost two goalkeepers in the space of 24 hours and the PNE boss has admitted that he will now consider all options in the shotstopping department.

"That's football, we have to get on with it, we have to look at Chris Neal or Jonathan Gould to come in but that's football. It's a disappointment but what can you do?"