Fishermen net the first away victory at Preston this season

PRESTON were beaten for the first time at home this season in the Central Taxis First Division by an Eyemouth team who took their chances well.

The Fishermen were clinical and made Preston pay for spurning a chance when opening the scoring.

Preston’s Peter Keenan was strong in the box and he swivelled and turned to fire a left footed shot from eight yards which smacked off the crossbar with goalkeeper Jonathan Gall standing helpless. Eyemouth picked up the loose ball and raced down the pitch with the ball landing at the feet of the dangerous Steven Shennan. He strode into the left-hand side of the box and dispatched the ball past the arms of the diving Ross Gilpin to put Eyemouth in front with 34 minutes played.

The first action of the second half was after 51 minutes when Lindsey Stewart, who was playing as a trialist for Preston, saw his effort go just wide of the post. Josh Hebdon almost put Eyemouth two up but his shot flew wide, however, the second goal of the game was not long in coming. Bryan Wilson was tripped just inside the box by Ross Aitchison and referee Wes Boulstridge had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. It was Wilson himself who stepped up to slam home the penalty to bring Preston level after 65 minutes.

Kevin Morrison was booked after 70 minutes and this was to prove costly later. Before then Eyemouth regained the lead through Aitchison who atoned for giving the penalty away by breaking into the Preston penalty area and firing a shot past Gilpin and into the far corner of the net.

With eight minutes left, Eyemouth extended their lead thanks to Jonny Simpson’s persistence although the goal was hotly disputed by the Preston defence with Gilpin receiving a yellow card. A minute later and Preston reduced the deficit when Kevin Morrison shot home from 15 yards, but, in attempting to hurry along the restart by collecting the ball nestling in the net, Morrison and Gall appeared to have a little stramash in the goals which was spotted by the officials, a yellow card for both meant that Morrison had to leave the match early reducing Preston to ten men.

Whilst that was the end of the scoring a post-match incident saw Richard Baxendale also receive a red card.

Preston had the wind at their backs to start with and enjoyed a lot of possession but created few goalscoring opportunities, the closest being a free-kick from Craig Scott that Keenan just failed to connect with at the far post. After 30 minutes, determined play from Fraser Henderson almost produced the opening goal but Keenan’s netbound shot was smartly stopped by Gall.

It was a disappointing end to the year for Preston and there is a lot of hard work required to ensure that Preston’s stay in the First Division last for jut one season.

Preston Athletic: Gilpin, Morrison, Trialist, Costello (Innes 85), Scott, McGlashan, Cairnie, McColl, Henderson, Keenan (M Stewart 71), Wilson.

Eyemouth United: Gall, Wales, Walker, Hastie, Baxendale, Aitchison, Hebdon, J Ainslie, Shennan, Coyle (Waugh 85), J Simpson.