PRESTON came within an inch of losing their second place spot in the league when Bournemouth completed the double over them with this 1-0 defeat.

With Walsall winning, the gap between second and third place was narrowed to just one point.

North End need to get back to winning ways after this result, which was nothing short of disappointing.

You can make some allowance for the fact that five players were out injured, but even allowing for that Preston were just not at the races in the first half when the damage was done.

They had the first chance, David Eyres hitting a powerful 20-yard drive wide, but then they drifted out of the match as Ian Cox and Mike Dean closed things down at the back.

Robinson and Hughes bossed midfield and the Stein and Fletcher strike-force started to cause problems for Jackson and Murdock.

It came as no surprise when Bournemouth took the lead on 13 minutes. A lovely run off the ball by Steve Robinson took him past the North End back four to the goal-line.

He looked up, saw Steve Fletcher arriving in the box and played a perfect cross for Fletcher to send a powerful header crashing into the net.

Preston just didn't heed the warning and minutes later John O'Neil crossed to Hayter at the back post and his flying header beat the diving David Lucas and smacked against the post for an enormous let-off.

North End rallied, Eyres floating in a free kick which looked dangerous but Gray

seemed to lose the flight of the ball and the chance was gone.

Trailing at half-time, Preston brought on Jon Macken for Gray and at last they started to get into the match.

The build-up was fine but always that final pass was letting North End down and when they did get their act together, the excellent Ian Cox was there to clear the danger.

With Preston pushing everyone forward in a dramatic bid to get an equaliser, there was always the danger that Bournemouth would strike on the break.

So it proved, as Robinson got clear only to shoot narrowly wide of the post.

With 15 minutes remaining, Bournemouth decided to shut up shop, operating a blanket defence and Preston rallied.

A series of crosses came in from both wings and in a frantic goalmouth scramble it looked as if Murdock would force the ball in from close range but some desperate defending kept him out.

Manager David Moyes said:"We are obviously disappointed to lose but we have given away a bad goal.

"On another day we may have got something from the match, but not today."

Moyes added: "We had five key players missing, which is a fact, but they had some missing too. It's a poor result for us but we will battle on."

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