Preston North defeat Leeds United 6-4 in miraculous encounter
It was pure madness at Elland Road last night as Leeds after leading 4-1 at a point lost 4-6 to Darren Ferguson’s Preston North End in the Coca Cola Championship.
Jon Parkin grabbed a magnificent hat trick as PNE produced an inspired comeback to beat Leeds in a pulsating encounter at Elland Road.
PNE started the game being in the relegation zone, somehow found a new lease of life to recover from 4-1 down after 39 minutes to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat to leave the 11,000 home crowd awestruck. It was victory that was beyond belief and
left the fans feeling as if they had been struck by a train.
Prakin opened the scoring on the night for the visitors early in the game but the hosts responded like cornered tigers. Davide Somma’s brace combined with Luciano Becchio and Alex Bruce’s goals seemingly put the Peacocks in cruise control of the tie.
The home crown was jubilant and was dancing in the isles not knowing how the story would unfold.
Preston went into the game on the back of a solitary win against Coventry at the weekend and were in dreamland as Tearcy forced his way into the box and forced Shane Higgins to only parry the ball onto Parkin’s path, who taped into a gaping goal.
Perhaps scoring the goal was like tweaking the tail of a wounded tiger as Leeds responded emphatically and restored the parity in the game when George McCartney found Becchio in the box with a cross and Becchio headed past the goalie without any difficulty.
Leeds could have had the lead just moments later but Lonergan denied Somma after a clever back heel by Becchio gave him in acres of space in PNE’s box.
The super vocal home crown did not have to wait too long as their side were in the lead from the resulting corner.
The incoming corner was insanely headed across into his own goal by St Ledger and Bruce could not believe his luck as he only had to put his foot to the ball to give The Whites an advantage.
Leeds did not sit on the goal advantage and continued their ventures forward, controlling and in fact dictating the pace of the game and were duly rewarded in the 20th minute when Somma’s shot deflected past the hapless Longergan.
Simon Grayson’s men were playing in inspired form and mesmerized the home audience with ludicrously beautiful football as the visitors were equally inept.
Somma was the tormentor again and did no harm to his burgeoning reputation in the 39th minute when he cleverly cut inside from the left hand side and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the bottom left corner of Longergan’s goal.
It was only the 40th minute and the Peacocks were leading 4-1, the home crowd was going mad with jubilation not knowing the greater madness that was to unfold itself.
PNE were not willing to give up, not just yet and Parkin reduced the arrears in the 41st minute as he ghosted behind the Leeds back 4 to make the score line 4-2 and only 41 minutes were on the clock.
There is nothing like going down with a fight but perhaps they knew they were never going down. The Lilywhites began the second half with greater vigour and self belief and the next goal from Tearcy was the freakiest of the night as Tearcy somehow managed
to curl the ball from the corner flag. The clock displayed 54 minutes and the visitors were back in the game with the score board flashing 4-3 but still in favour of the home side.
The game continued to play havoc with the expectations of every single person in the crowd as Preston made it 4-4 before the hour mark. Hume was brought down in the box by Bruce and Davidson scored from the resulting spot kick to leave the home crowd gob
smacked.
The most miraculous comeback was completed when Davidson’s long throw in found Parkin, who showed sublime control and completed his treble with an even more sublime half volley.
Leeds had perhaps their tail between their legs as it was the visitors turn to dominate the proceedings.
Higgins added a sixth as a Billy Jones diagonal ball was headed over Higgs into the top corner of the goal.
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