Camiel Neghli ensured it was a baptism of fire for new Preston manager Graham Alexander as his late strike sealed a 1-0 win for Millwall at Deepdale.
It was coolness personified from the Dutch-born Algerian, who slotted Luke Cundle’s cut-back into the far corner from just inside the box for what turned out to be a 79th-minute winner.
Alexander was at Deepdale for 10 years, making 400 appearances for the Lancashire outfit, and he stood on the touchline as their manager for the first time since leaving Bradford, who were at the top of League One when he departed.
Camiel Neghli scored the only goal of the game at Deepdale
On this evidence, the 55-year-old will have his work cut out as he hopes to turn around Preston’s fortunes with the Lilywhites currently sitting rock bottom of the Championship.
He came undone against a former Preston manager in Alex Neil, who would have been delighted to have ended his three-match winless run with a hard-fought, but deserved, away victory.
Alexander’s new era nearly got off to the worst possible start as Tairyk Arconte slotted past Daniel Iversen inside 30 seconds having latched onto Neghli’s defence-splitting pass, only to be denied by the offside flag.
A buoyant atmosphere pre-game was quickly dimmed and Neghli tested Iversen with a well-struck volley from the edge of the box on 10 minutes as Preston defenders struggled to clear their lines.
The home side were all at sea again in the 16th minute as Kyrell Lisbie thundered against the bar from close range at the near post, reacting quickest to Lyndon Dykes’ header forward.
Preston’s first real chance of note came after 23 minutes as Harry Clarke dragged wide from an acute angle after Jusef Erabi’s shot was blocked by defender Jake Cooper.
On the half-hour mark, though, the pitch opened up for Preston again as Andrija Vukcevic found Callum Lang, who fizzed a shot wide from just outside the box.
The best chance for the hosts fell on the stroke of half-time as Caleb Taylor woefully misjudged a bouncing ball, allowing Erabi in on goal, but the Swede struck straight at Filip Marschall.
Millwall started the second period like they did the first, on the front foot, and Iversen had to be alert to keep out Lisbie at the near post as he turned Zak Sturge’s cross towards goal.
North End did almost take the lead on the counter, however, as Lang teed up Alfie Devine but the ball was slightly behind the former Tottenham man and he dragged his effort wide.
It looked like the game was fizzling out until Neghli provided a ruthless killer instinct from 16 yards, his third goal of the season, much to the delight of the travelling fans behind the goal.
The managers
Preston’s Graham Alexander:
“At half-time, 0-0 or 1-1 would have been a fair scoreline but the first half was really positive. I thought we were slightly the better team without taking that lead.
“In the second half, we had an opportunity after about 10 or 15 minutes but apart from that I thought it was a transitional game, attritional, lots of challenges and competitiveness. There was a threat from their set-pieces and I don’t think ours were good enough or competitive enough but, at that stage, it was 0-0 or 1-0 and we fell on the wrong side of that line.
“We have to try and improve, obviously. We have to improve on both sides of the game. With our defensive structure – which I thought was really good today to be honest, so that’s something we have to maintain – there was a slight glitch in our goal, which is something we can fix and remedy straight away because when we see it on Monday, we’ll see it straight away.”
Millwall’s Alex Neil:
“I thought we deserved to win.
“In the first half, I thought the game was quite loose for both teams. We scored in the first two minutes and it got disallowed for offside, we hit the underside of the bar, we probably should score, we hit the post, so we certainly carried a threat, but I thought Preston were a little bit threatening in the first half as well.
“We changed it a little bit, put an extra midfielder in the middle, put a striker up through the side, put a bit of pace on the flanks, so it gave us a little bit more control of the pitch but probably meant we carried a little bit less of a threat. I thought when the subs came on as well, I thought that they helped us.”
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