Preston returned to winning ways on Wednesday night, beating Birmingham City 1-0 at St Andrew’s.
North End were in poor form entering the game having lost all three games in 2021, but Scott Sinclair’s second-half winner grabbed the victory.
Preston move up to 10th in the Championship table, seven points off the playoffs and now very much hoping to kick on for the rest of the season.
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Fans had been calling for Emil Riis to be given a start last night, and the Dane was indeed picked to lead the line against the Blues.
Riis will have been frustrated at half time; he was caught offside far too often, just failing to time his runs off the shoulder of Birmingham’s high line.
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Riis was much better after the break, causing problems down the sides and in behind the Birmingham defence, and he almost bagged an assist as Brad Potts hit the post from a Riis pass.
The 22-year-old is clearly still raw, but there are moments of quality that leave you excited about his future, with Alex Neil clearly in agreement with that.
Neil told iFollow after Wednesday’s game that he thought Riis grew into the clash, and predicted that he will ultimately get better with more playing time, praising him for being a ‘good platform’ in the Preston attack.
“I thought, for not having played in a while, although he got caught offside quite a lot, you could see he grew into the game,” said Neil.
“I thought he became better, I think he will become better, and he was a good platform for us in terms of getting up the pitch, and he offered that threat,” he added.