Match Reports

Preston North End 0-4 Albion

An image of the Albion team celebrating Furlong's goal against Preston

Albion earned an excellent 0-4 win away at previously unbeaten Preston North End on Saturday afternoon.

First half goals by Darnell Furlong and Alex Mowatt gave the Baggies a commanding advantage, before Matty Phillips’ deflected strike and Kyle Bartley’s volley rounded-off an incredibly impressive performance.

The result means Carlos Corberán’s men are now four without defeat ahead of Tuesday night’s home game against Sheffield Wednesday.

The boss made five changes following last weekend’s draw against Millwall, but his side began the game brilliantly at a wet and dreary Deepdale.

They took the lead just five minutes in thanks to a wonderful Furlong first-time finish – the defender coolly converting from the edge of the box to give Albion an early advantage.

And the Baggies found a second on the half-hour mark. This time Alex Palmer sent an excellent long pass towards Grady Diangana, who linked up with John Swift to set up Mowatt’s fantastic left-footed effort.

Albion were in total control and had two good chances ahead of half-time, however Okay Yokuslu headed Swift’s dangerous corner over and Jed Wallace fired straight at Freddie Woodman.

The visitors came out full of the same intent and thought they had another six minutes into the second period – Swift’s superb cross deftly touched home by Diangana, only for the assistant referee to raise his flag.

Corberán’s side didn’t have to wait long, though, to grab a deserved third. Phillips, having caused the North End defence problems all afternoon, netted via a big deflection to send the 2,000 travelling supporters crazy.

They were not done there, either – Bartley’s 88th minute close-range volley rounding off an emphatic showing in front of goal.

From there, the away team had no problems seeing out a comfortable victory in Lancashire, recording their third clean sheet from four fixtures and going back down the M6 with three eye-catching Sky Bet Championship points.

Albion: Palmer; Furlong, Kirpe, Bartley, Pieters (Townsend 78); Yokuslu (Molumby 67), Mowatt, Diangana (Sarmiento 67), Swift (Chalobah 78), Phillips (Pipa 85); Wallace.

Substitutes: Griffiths, Taylor, Fellows, Thomas-Asante.