He’s only gone and done it again; Cameron Archer has scored yet another Preston goal, firing North End to a 1-0 win away at Peterborough United.
This was far from a classic. A dreadful pitch wasn’t exactly conducive to flowing football, and Preston were far from top form.
Ryan Lowe won’t have been too pleased with the quality on show for much of the game, and Peterborough posed a threat going forward themselves.
North End kept it tight – albeit with some luck as Joe Ward rattled the crossbar – before the key moment arrived.
Alan Browne fed Archer just outside the Peterborough box. Archer’s movement on and off the ball is just so smooth, so effortless – and that’s what Frankie Kent found out.
Archer shifted the ball quicky onto his left-foot, leaving Kent flat-footed. Before the Peterborough defender had chance to recover, Archer had whipped a left-footed strike beyond Steven Benda and into the top corner.
This is something we have seen from Archer so many times in a Preston shirt; that innate ability to shirt the ball either side and create half a yard of space, leaving defenders off balance.
That’s now three goals in just six appearances for Preston since arriving on loan from Aston Villa in January.
The 20-year-old has brought exactly what Preston were seeking in attack; a striker who can conjure that moment of magic in tight games.
In such a short space of time, Archer has captured the hearts of Preston fans, almost immediately making himself one of the finest loan signings North End have made in recent times.
When North End secured Daniel Iversen and Sepp van den Berg last January, the pair signed loan deals until the end of the season but then stayed for the 2021-22 campaign.
That’s the flip side of Archer’s outstanding form – he isn’t Preston’s player. Come the summer, Archer will be back at Aston Villa and gearing up to impress Steven Gerrard.
Archer doing the same is the dream of many Preston fans now. Imagine the impact Archer could have in a full season at Deepdale?
The problem now is that Archer may be showing that he is just too good to be loaned out again next season.
Villa fans already want Archer around the first team and shining in the Championship shows that he has a future in the Premier League.
We can only hope that Gerrard sees how Archer is developing at Preston and wants that to continue.
For now though, just enjoy Archer while we can. He is quite simply proving to be a masterstroke of a signing by Ryan Lowe.