Ryan Leonard's stunning first-half strike and Luke Cundle's stoppage-time finish earned Millwall a hard-fought 2-0 win at Preston North End, closing the gap to second-placed Middlesbrough to a single point. In a scrappy contest at Deepdale, the Lions found just enough quality in the final third while the hosts' chronic lack of cutting edge again undermined their play-off push.
Alex Neil's side, so impressive on their travels in recent weeks, produced a mature away performance that mixed resilience with incisive attacking moments. Preston created half-chances of their own and were indebted to goalkeeper Dai Cornell for keeping them in the game for so long, but Paul Heckingbottom's team rarely looked capable of overturning the deficit and paid the price for a run that has brought only one win in six matches.
Scrappy opening punctuated by flashes at both ends
Both teams struggled to find rhythm in a scrappy opening, with misplaced passes and second balls dominating the early exchanges. The first clear sight of goal fell to Preston in the 14th minute when Brad Potts surged on to a clever, line-splitting pass from Lewis Dobbin and unleashed a powerful drive from the edge of the box, only for Anthony Patterson to gather comfortably.