Preston North End 4-1 Huddersfield Town: Osmajic hat-trick keeps Terriers in danger

Preston North End struck a huge blow to Huddersfield Town’s Championship survival hopes with a victory that keeps them in the hunt for a play-off spot thanks to a late Milutin Osmajic hat-trick.

North End were level shortly after the break, when Alex Matos clipped Will Keane as he surged into the box, and the forward stepped up to level from the spot.

It looked like both sides would end up sharing the points, but substitute Osmajic’s seven-minute hat-trick off the bench sealed it for the hosts.

The first saw the Montenegro striker nip in ahead of goalkeeper Lee Nicholls to stab home Duane Holmes’ cross, and he showed poise to pull clear and slide the ball in for his second.

His third in added time completed a remarkable victory for the hosts, who are five points behind sixth-placed Norwich, while Huddersfield in 21st are looking anxiously over their shoulders with four games left.

Ryan Lowe’s side still have a job to prise their way into the top six but three wins in their last five games have given them a shot at the play-offs in a season where the manager has been under scrutiny.

Osmajic’s late cameo was another welcome turn, taking his tally to eight goals for the season.

Huddersfield boss Andre Reitenbreiter has seen his side win just one of their last eight games and their fall-off in the second half will be a concern.

They only had two shots on target, and were opened up far too easily late on as the game and the point they looked to have earned slipped away.

Preston 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.”