Ryan Lowe took a gamble by starting Seani Maguire on Wednesday night – and the Preston striker repaid the faith with a fine display against West Bromwich Albion.
North End had to find goals and hopefully a win on Wednesday with the Baggies coming into town off the back of poor form.
Thankfully, Preston took advantage with a 1-0 win as Emil Riis scored the only goal of the game, tapping home Alvaro Fernandez’s cross.
That early goal proved to be the winner as Preston had to dig in and grind out a result in the second half.
Preston looked bright early on and a key part of that fast start was Maguire.
Eyebrows were raised when Ryan Lowe’s lineup emerged and there was Maguire, featuring alongside Riis in the final third.
The Irishman had played just eight minutes this season before being handed a start, so that decision felt like a gamble.
Maguire impressed though and went close to opening the scoring as a back post header was superbly saved by Alex Palmer.
Maguire’s link-up play was a real positive thoughout as he picked up some clever spots when dropping deep, he challenged well in the air and fired a right-footed strike just wide in the first half.
We saw indications last season that Maguire and Riis just seem to dovetail well together and again looked more like a real partnership than any other attack North End have fielded this season.
We know everybody wants more goals; Maguire hasn’t scored since November of last year and even that was his only goal of the season.
Hopefully those goals will come in the very near future, especially as Preston really, really need them.
For now though, we can only praise Maguire’s performance against West Brom and also give Lowe some credit for making a bold choice by starting him.