Preston North End 3-1 Huddersfield Town: Hosts fight back to reach FA Cup fourth round

Preston North End came from behind against Huddersfield Town at Deepdale to reach the FA Cup fourth round.

North End were level within three minutes when Tom Lees diverted Ben Woodburn’s cross into his own net.

Bambo Diaby fired into the top corner after Town failed to clear a set-piece and Alan Browne wrapped up Preston’s victory from close range late on.

Former Barnsley defender Diaby had earlier had an impact at the other end, denying Kamberi a second goal with a last-ditch clearance while the score was 1-1.

A low-key first half ended goalless, raising the prospect of a potential fifth fixture between the two sides this season, having also met twice in the Championship and in the Carabao Cup first round.

Huddersfield boss Mark Fotheringham made a first-half change to replace teenage defender Loick Ayina, seconds after he was perhaps fortunate to escape a second yellow card for a foul on Woodburn, and two further substitutions at half-time in an attempt to turn the game in Town’s favour.

The introductions of Kamberi, who signed a short-term contract with the Terriers earlier this week, and Duane Holmes worked initially, but the visitors were unable to hold on to their lead and Preston fought back to reach round four for only the second time since their run to the fifth round in 2014-15.

Preston manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

“It was chalk and cheese between the first and second half. What we needed to do was have a calmness in our play, keep creating opportunities and hopefully scoring.

“The second half was very good and we were well worthy.

“To concede a scruffy goal on our behalf was disappointing, but probably sometimes that’s what we’ve needed – to go ‘we can’t just roll over, we’ve got to compete and have a go’ and we did that.”

Huddersfield manager Mark Fotheringham told BBC Radio Leeds:

“It was a great exercise, we got a lot of answers and we had a lot of young players on the team.

“The goals we lost were absolutely unacceptable and that’s happened now in the last two games. I’m very unsatisfied with that and I’ve made that clear to the lads, they’re obviously disappointed.

“When Florian scored we were very much on top and I feel the game swung on his second chance. We let them off the hook and that’s been the story of the whole season.”