Testing day but Brown enjoys Hume comforts
Preston North End 1 Leicester City 1
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Your support makes all the difference.A late equaliser from Iain Hume and an even later save from Andy Lonergan saw Phil Brown's daunting task of keeping Preston in the Championship get off to an encouraging start.
Brown, in charge for a League match for the first time since being appointed their manager, had seen North End outplayed by Leicester.
Yakubu Ayegbeni had scored one on his debut and could have had a hat-trick, while Paul Gallagher had hit the woodwork twice. But somehow Preston had hung on, showing the sort of grit that the incoming manager has told them they will need. They got their reward when Hume latched on to a through-ball from Paul Hayes and tucked it past Chris Weale with City hoping for an offside flag.
Even then they could have finished the afternoon empty-handed. Deep into the five minutes added on to an eventful second half, the Leicester substitute, Steve Howard, released their leading scorer, Andy King,who was one-on-one with the goalkeeper but Lonergan got enough behind the ball for it to loop up on to the roof of the net.
"We're off and running," Brown said. "I'm absolutely ecstatic for the players, because they showed tremendous commitment to the cause today. People might say it wasn't deserved, but it doesn't matter."
It was two points lost for Leicester, who should have been ahead when Yakubu, on loan from Everton, found the net on the hour.
Picking up the ball at a narrowing angle, he shimmied and feinted, sending goalkeeper and defenders the wrong way, before guiding it inside the near post. "I hope it's the first of many for us," his manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, said. "When he gets the ball to his feet, he's very strong – and he's a born goalscorer.
Preston brought their own loan signing, Nathan Ellington, into the fray and he almost laid on an equaliser for Hayes. Hume had the ball in the net, but clearly from an offside position, while City, adept at playing keep-ball, also had a couple of chances to clinch the match.
"From the chances we created,we should win a game like this,"Eriksson said.
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