Charlton slumped to a 1-0 defeat at The Valley on Sunday afternoon. A Paul Gallagher penalty was all that separated the two sides.
Team wise, Lee Bowyer made one change to the team that performed so stoically at West Brom last Saturday – Beram Kayal coming in for Erhun Oztumer, who dropped to the bench.
As expected, Patrick Bauer was in the Lilywhites’ starting line-up, and he received a rapturous reception from the Valley faithful.
The Valley also paid its tribute to service men and women who had fallen in conflict, with an impeccably kept two minute silence.
Canny Scottish manager, Alex Neil, did a number on Charlton, and deployed a style to stop them playing.
The nearest the Addicks came to scoring was a glancing Conor Gallagher header that narrowly evaded the far post early in the first-half.
In-form Macauley Bonne had a decent opportunity shortly after the interval, but he missed his kick.
Ben Purrington went close in stoppage time, but his shot hit the side netting.
The decisive moment came just before the hour mark, when Jason Pearce appeared to impede Jayden Stockley in the area. Both players ended up on the floor and referee, David Webb, pointed to the spot.
The veteran Gallagher hit an unstoppable penalty past Dillon Phillps.
It was a frustrating afternoon for Bowyer, who admitted that his side had a bad day at the office:
”We gave the ball away too much, we complicated the game a lot of the time. All those things, that’s not what we’re about.
“I’m disappointed to lose to a penalty. Our captain has made a bad decision, there’s a few reasons why we ended up losing today.
“We had some good chances – we didn’t take them. We have to be at it every single game because, when we aren’t, we don’t do so well.
“That’s the difference with us coming up. You have to be at it every week in this division. Unfortunately, we weren’t there today.”Neil was naturally delighted his plan to disrupt the hosts’ natural game worked, and had this to say after the game:
”I thought we contained them very well. We spoke about making sure our full backs didn’t release, because they want to run in behind you as tens and they want to hunt and press the ball and we bypassed that by going long to Jayden (Stockley) and then playing off from there.
“I thought we got the game plan spot on. I thought the box in the middle, we knew they were going to have an extra player in the middle, but I thought the amount of times we managed to nick it and counter them was good, but we just didn’t really make best use of our chances in the first-half.”
Next up for Charlton is the eagerly awaited local derby with Millwall on Saturday.
The good news for Bowyer is that the three players treading the disciplinary tightrope – Conor Gallagher, Tom Lockyer and Darren Pratley – all avoided picking up yellow cards.
It would have been their fifth of the season and they would have been suspended from the clash at the Den.
Charlton: Phillips; Solly, Lockyer, Pearce, Sarr (Leko 46), Purrington; Pratley (Aneke 74), Cullen, Gallagher, Kayal (Oztumer 89); Bonne.
Subs (not used): Maynard-Brewer, Oshilaja, Lapslie, Davison.
Booked: Sarr 25 (foul), Kayal 65 (foul), Bonne 90 (dissent).
Preston: Rudd; Fisher, Bauer, Davies; Rafferty, Pearson, Browne, Barhuizen, Johnson (Gallagher 31); Maguire, Stockley.
Subs (not used): Ripley, Bayliss, Storey, Hughes, Ledson, Bodin.
Goal: Gallagher 58 (pen)
Booked: Pearson 66 (dissent), Fisher 74 (foul ), Stockley 80 (foul ), Barkhuizen 81 (foul ), Rudd 90 ( timewasting).
Referee: David Webb.
Attn: 16,027 (1,128 Preston).