Preston North End 2-3 Southampton
North End pressed the self-destruct button and threw away a two goal lead to end up on the losing side.
The Lilywhites looked like they were cruising to victory after Billy Jones and Stephen Elliott had put them two goals to the good in the first half. However, it appeared as though a different side emerged from the half-time break and put on a performance that was described as "unprofessional" by manager Alan Irvine.
In the first half Preston completely controlled the game and were posing problems right from the off. Within three minutes played Preston had already had three corners - all of which came after some patient and precise build up play.
Throughout, and until and including when Preston took the lead, the home side created enough chances in the first period and would perhaps feel hard done by not to have been awarded a penalty after Jon Parkin was brought down. Southampton had one or two half chances after some sloppy and somewhat casual defending from North End but have not had the urgency or guile to convert them.
On 36 minutes Preston took a deserved lead through Billy Jones - scoring his second goal in a week in his new found midfield role. The ball broke to Jones after Parkin had held the ball up well on the edge of the area, Jones hit a low, hard and precise shot into the bottom left hand corner of Kelvin Davis' goal and sent the Deepdale crowd into raptures.
Preston had doubled their lead just a few moments later. Billy Jones was involved again after he was picked out by a long range Paul McKenna pass. Jones guided the ball to Elliott who rifled his shot past Kelvin Davis to give Preston, what looked like, a comfortable lead.
The way that Preston were playing it was almost a case of how many they would win by, as well as a sense of relief. Going in at the break Preston looked to have this game in the bag but despite Alan Irvine's instructions to be more ruthless at half time, the Lilywhites crumbled.
Southampton's comeback was on when Alex Pearce, the on-loan Reading defender rose above everyone to head home an Andrew Surman corner. At 2-1, the game still looked to be Preston's but a costly error from Sean St Ledger, who failed to deal with a loose ball gifted Southampton and equaliser. Oscar Gobern capitalised on St Ledger's error by drilling the ball across the face of Preston's goal onto the head of Andrew Surman who rose like a salmon to bring the Saints level.
Preston fans could hardly believe what they were witnessing; being 2-0 up and looking more than comfortable to now finding themselves back on level terms. Alan Irvine made a couple of changes by bringing on Mellor and Brown for Elliott and Parkin. Chris Sedgwick was also introduced at the expense of Barry Nicholson as Preston searching for a winner.
After the Saints' equaliser, Preston could hardly string more than a couple of passes together and were under some immense pressure from a now resurgent Southampton side.
Southampton's winner eventually came through David McGoldrick whose 90th effort broke Preston hearts. McGoldrick picked the ball up just past the centre circle and proceeded towards goal, skipped over a couple of Preston challenges before the former Notts County man found himself on the edge of the Preston penalty box and calmly slotted home the winner. Preston fans and players alike were stunned. As were the travelling Southampton fans who, unsurprisingly, were on cloud nine.
In essence it was Preston who gifted the game to Southampton as opposed to visitors taking all three points through their own merit. Post match, Preston manager Alan Irvine was clearly furious with his players:
"Extremely unhappy. We let a game that was completely in our control go away from us.
"We've turned victory into a defeat in a totally unacceptable manner."
Alan Irvine labelled his side's performance as "unprofessional":
"I felt we got we got careless. I spoke to the lads at half time and the words I was using were words like; professional, cold, clinical, ruthless and we didn't display those qualities.
"If you don't, if you get careless and you are sloppy, if you're unprofessional then you lose games.
"We certainly got into some promising positions to finish the game off at 2-0 and we didn't put it all together. We should still have won the game."
Preston
Andrew Lonergan, Sean St Ledger, Youl Mawene, Wayne Brown, Jay McEveley, Barry Nicholson (Chris Sedgwick 76), Billy Jones, Paul McKenna, Ross Wallace, Jon Parkin (Chris Brown 73), Stephen Elliott (Neil Mellor 76)
Unused Subs: Jason Jarrett, Chris Neal,
Southampton
Kelvin Davis, Rudi Skacel, Andrew Surman, Lloyd James (Oscar Gobern 46), David McGoldrick, Morgan Schniederlin, Oliver Lancashire, Jake Thomson (Simon Gillett 83), Jack Cork, Ryan Smith (Bradley Wright-Phillips 46), Alex Pearce
Unused Subs: Paul Wotton, Bartosz Bialkowski,