Preston moved to the top of the Championship table as substitute and captain Paul Gallagher scored from the spot to give them a 1-0 win at Charlton.
Preston had refused bottom-of-the-table Stoke permission to talk to their manager Alex Neil on the eve of the match and with the two clubs occupying opposite ends of the table he can have no reason to complain.
Preston’s Declan Rudd was the first goalkeeper called into serious action, parrying an angled shot from Charlton’s Ben Purrington after 16 minutes, and he was relieved when Conor Gallagher just failed to get a touch on a cross from the same player seconds later.
It took Preston 21 minutes to test Charlton’s Dillon Phillips, who got down quickly to block a close-range shot by Tom Barkhuizen at the far post after two defenders had failed to clear Darnell Fisher’s low cross from the left.
Sean Maguire should have done better after 39 minutes when Tom Lockyer’s slip allowed him a free run in from the left but his final effort was a weak flick into the hands of Phillips. And Maguire was wasteful again two minutes later, shooting high over the crossbar at the end of a quick Preston break, as was Barkhuizen, heading over unchallenged from Fisher’s cross.
Barkhuizen nearly doubled the lead when he slid in at the far post but was just unable to turn home Gallagher’s corner.
And Charlton almost made them pay in the 95th minute when Rudd missed Cullen’s corner but Purrington was unable to force the ball home.
