Preston North End 4 Keane pen Osmajic 3 Huddersfield Town 1 Koroma
PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Cunningham; Brady, McCann, Holmes (N.Mawene, 90+4), Frøkjær, Hughes (Browne, 76); Riis (Osmajić, 76), Keane (Stewart, 90+3). Subs not used: Cornell, Evans, Woodburn, Whatmough, Best.
Huddersfield Town line-up: Nicholls; Spencer, Pearson, Helik, Jackson; Thomas, Matos (Healey, 69), Kasumu, Koroma (Jones, 77); Wiles (Radulović, 87); Burgzorg (Ward, 76). Subs not used: Maxwell, Headley, Edwards, Turton, Iorpenda.
Attendance: 14,698 (1,292 Huddersfield Town fans).
Referee: Mr L Smith.
The traditional game of two halves poor in the first, decent in the second aide by a slightly soft penalty however considering some of the nailed on ones that have not been given this season, plus a seven minute hattrick by the man from Montenegro
The three goals by Os first league treble since Garner bagged against Fleetwood and 2016 Makienok in a League cup tie at Bournemouth
On a night which could be described as slightly windy the first surprise given the deluge over recent days they watered the pitch before kick off, madness.
Two changes Mads FJ and Holmes were in for Osmajic and the unlucky Whatmough who put in a decent shift on Saturday, could have done with him in the first half as our non tackling midfield with the exception of McCann watched as Town ran straight through the midfield area on numerous occasions.
Town undoubtedly were the better side in the first half started well, attacking at pace giving our defence a test, Lindsay had a nightmare first half, didn't really threaten Woodman although a coupleof long range efforts went close.
We did force five corners in quick succession only one produced a golbound effort Holmes's shot from outside the box pinballed around the area before ending up as a corner, Keane also had an effort narrowly wide of left hand post.
Just before the break Town score, Lindsay beaten to the ball and then chaos in the box, had umpteen chances to clear it, the ball falls probably fortunately at Koroma's feet, looked to be a shot which was mishit but Koroma controlled the ball twisted one way and then the other and fired home, no more than they deserved.
Half time brought a negative response from the home faithful seen this performance many times since Fantastic took charge.
Second half roles reversed duly level from Keane's penalty, one of the folks in front of me gotba text saying it was a bad decision but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Keane sent Nicholls the wrong way and in truth we dominated from then on, possiblyy may have had a penalty when Keane again looked to have been fouled not given and Holmes went on a mazy run forcing Nicholls into a TV save.
15 minutes to go Fantastic makes changes Browne and Osmajic on, the latter may have got the glory but Browne bolstered up the midfield showing what we miss when he doesn't play.
With six minutes left Holmes right hand side of the box, ball into 6 yard area, Osmajic 2-1, three minutes later, Browne sliderule pass and the big lad is off again easily outpaces the Town defence slots home, 3-1 and then the third personal view best of the lot, think it was Browne who sent Mads FJ down the right, acres of space pass into the box and the man from Montenegro said yes 4-1
And that was that. Six pointer on Saturday against the Canaries,.
reston boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"In the end we won comfortably. The first-half performance wasn't us, we weren't at the races and we told them that.
"I had the faith and belief that the lads would come out after half-time and perform, we changed one or two things over and gave them a bit more information and said to them - 'come on, you need to raise it 20%'.
"The penalty gives us a bit of a lifeline getting back in and from there there's only one team going to win it."
Huddersfield boss Andre Breitenreiter told BBC Radio Leeds:
"We played really good first half, were in the lead 1-0 and should have had two or three goals but missed the final pass.
"We defended as a team and had a lot of energy, and everything changed with the penalty. It changed the game, Preston got a new confidence and from that moment we defended poorly, lost every ball and were without confidence.
"When we defend like that it's impossible to get points and we have to do better on Saturday."
Interesting fact Osmajic has scored 8 times this season and all in the Town End goal