Crawley Town ? PNE ?
North End hit the bar in the second half through Jack King, who also saw Paul Jones save his driven shot, but the Reds held on.
The home side took the lead after only six minutes of the half, a low shot from 25 yards by Mike Jones nestling in the bottom left hand corner.
Simon Grayson had made two changes to the side that ended the home games with a win against Tranmere, Thorsten Stuckmann into the side and Joel Byrom replacing the injured Garner.
The home side started the game strongly and their goal came on six minutes, Jones picking up the ball and striking from distance towards the bottom left hand corner, Stuckmann getting a hand to it, but unable to keep it out.
It took North End a while to get into the game and get used to the difficult dry and bumpy surface and the home side had a further chance when Stuckmann tipped the ball over after David Buchanan got a headed block on to Billy Clarke’s header.
However, as the game progressed the navy-clad Lilywhites began to get more possession and ended the first half the stronger of the two teams. David Buchanan overlapped well and almost created a chance for Monakana on the half hour mark and then John Welsh curled a 35-yard free kick just past the right hand upright.
Just before the end of the half the best piece of PNE passing saw North End drive at the heart of the Crawley defence and Jeffrey Monakana was upended 25 yards out. Will Hayhurst this time had free kick honours, but the wall did well to block his goalbound effort.
On 53 minutes North End had a great chance to draw level, King took the ball off Walsh and drove away into the right hand channel. He powered a shot, but Paul Jones made a fine block to give North End a corner. North End continued to press and Will Hayhurst saw a shot deflected wide as the Lilywhites had a brace of corners, but the home side defended strongly.
Paul Hayes breached the North End back line with an hour gone, but tried a clever chip and only put the ball in Stuckmann's hands.
Up the other end Hayhurst burst away down the left, but a heavy touch at the mid point gave Jones in the Reds' goal a chance to come out and make a good block at the feet of the PNE youngster.
On 70 minutes North End were denied by the woodwork as they worked the ball well out to the right for Holmes to drill a ball over that Jack King met firmly, but saw the ball come back off the cross bar and away to safety.
With three minutes left North End were up in arms that they did not get a penalty. A hopeful ball from Paul Huntington found Nicky Wroe clean through, but Mark Connolly brought him down in the box and left the North End top scorer livid that no spot kick had been given.
Three minutes of time was added on, but the home side saw out the pressure from North End.
: Jones, Sadler, Connolly, Clarke (Sparrow, 84), Simpson, Walsh, Hunt, Bulman, Adams (Torres, 90), Jones, Hayes (Proctor, 69). Subs not used: Dumbuya, O’Brien, Elford-Alliyu, Maddison.Crawley Town line-up
: Stuckmann, Connolly (Keane, 46), Buchanan, Welsh, Huntington, Wright, Monakana (Holmes, 60), Mousinho, Byrom (Wroe, 77), King, Hayhurst. Subs not used: Rudd, Cummins, Procter, Foster.PNE line-up
: 3,026 (239 away fans)Attendance
: Mr Simon HooperReferee