Preston 2-1 Sunderland: Will Keane scores second goal in as many games as North End pick up first win

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston and Sunderland at Deepdale as goals from Will Keane and Mads Frokjaer-Jensen help Ryan Lowe's North End to secure their first league win of the season

Saturday 12 August 2023 18:37, UK

Mads Frokjaer-Jensen's second-half strike secured Preston's first league win of the season with a 2-1 victory over Sunderland.

Will Keane's fortunate goal put Preston ahead midway through the first half, when Frokjaer-Jensen's shot took a heavy deflection off the striker and diverted into the net.

Jack Clarke levelled from the penalty spot as Sunderland got back on equal terms before half-time.

However, Frokjaer-Jensen put the hosts ahead again by finishing off a counter-attack on his home debut for North End to emerge victorious.

After an even opening phase, Preston upped the tempo as Alan Browne put in a dangerous cross from the right aimed towards Keane which Luke O'Nien diverted to safety.

Up the other end, Clarke breezed past Brad Potts after the quarter-hour mark and crossed low into the box but the Preston defence cleared the dangerous delivery.

Patrick Roberts clipped in a cross aimed towards Dennis Cirkin but the defender's header looped harmlessly over Freddie Woodman's goal.

Woodman was called into action on 23 minutes to parry over Pierre Ekwah's curling effort which looked to be goalbound.

But North End took the lead not long after that when Frokjaer-Jensen's shot from outside the box struck Keane and went past a helpless Anthony Patterson, who was totally wrongfooted.

Roberts' free-kick from the right hand side was claimed by Woodman as Sunderland sought to level.

And the Black Cats did get back on level terms on the half-hour mark when Kian Best pulled Clarke's shirt in the box and the winger coolly slotted home the resulting penalty to ensure the game was level at the break.

Following the interval, Best's corner was nearly hooked in by Browne but the Black Cats cleared, while Ekwah took aim at the other end and saw a powerful effort bounce wide.

As the hour mark approached, Best worked some space on the edge of the box to dink an effort over the Sunderland goal.

And the hosts went back in front when Browne's cross was knocked on by Keane for Frokjaer-Jensen to slot past Patterson and complete a fine counter-attacking goal.

Andrew Hughes took aim in the box but his effort landed off target for the home side, who had more energy and cutting edge to them in the second half.

Sunderland continued to threaten though and Clarke crossed from the left to Roberts, who Woodman was in the right place to deny 15 minutes before full-time.

O'Nien thumped a header wide not long after and Hughes later denied Sunderland substitute Abdoullah Ba with a great challenge to stop him going one-on-one as the hosts picked up the three points.

The managers

Preston's Ryan Lowe:

"We'd like to have played a little bit more football but sometimes it's just winning games of football early doors. We're down to the bare bones and have got a lot of kids out there. Until we get a fully fit squad back, we've just got to find ways how to win and that's what we did today - we found a way to win. It was a bit nerve-wracking I must say, but it was entertaining football.

"I think we were a little bit different in terms of being a bit more dogged in our defence and doing the right thing and stopping them at source because they've got some good players. They've caused loads of problems but we felt if we could deal with that, we'd always have opportunities to score goals which we did. Overall I'm pleased with the performance."

Sunderland's Tony Mowbray:

"Everybody behind the scenes is working hard to try and bring attacking options to the team. Hopefully we'll find a guy who lives for goals and keeps banging the ball in the net and all the play building up to it, somebody is going to have a good time at the football club, hopefully.

"You should judge football by the performance of the team, but we don't, we all get judged by the results. The results are not very good but the performance levels of the team in both games has been pretty high. I don't live by expected goals, but somebody said we were top six in expected goals last weekend and yet lost, and I don't know the number of times we got behind them in the six-yard box and just (didn't) pick somebody out to side-foot into the empty net today.