Preston opened their league account for the 2008/09 campaign with a thumping 4-1 victory away to Rotherham, converting their excellent cup form into league success at the fourth attempt.
Goals from Louise Cafferkey, Hannah Bailey, Laura Walker and Gemma Watson in an action packed second half were just reward for North End, not only for their efforts in this game, but also in a number of the opening league fixtures when their endeavours hadn't yielded the success they deserved.
Preston started with determination and had their first opportunity as early as the eighth minute when keeper Jenny Horrocks' ball over the top found Hannah Bailey - she beat the oncoming keeper only to see her shot go over the bar.
On 17 minutes good link up play between Bailey and her strike partner Sam Cadwallader forced a save from the home keeper, whilst on the half hour mark, Preston's Sarah McCrea shot over and only two minutes later Cadwallader played a ball through for Louise Cafferkey who saw her shot blocked and put out of play for a corner.
In the 34th minute McCrea found the back of the net but the linesman had already flagged for offside. In the final action of the half McCrea fought to win the ball passing to Cadwallader who again forced a good save from the Millers keeper.
With the game goalless at the interval, it was perhaps only through good fortune that Rotherham remained on levels terms, with PNE having failed to capitalise on their possession and opportunities.
Immediately after the break, Preston paid dearly for their errors with the home team taking the lead within the opening minute, a ball from their right finding an unmarked player in the box who made no mistake with her finish.
Preston pushed to get back into the game with Bailey heading over before Sarah McCrea was brought down when through on goal. From the resulting free kick, Cafferkey scored the desired equaliser on 57 minutes.
The visitors continued to dominate with Bailey playing an Alison Taberner throw onto Cadwallader, who saw her shot gathered by the keeper. Cadwallader and Bailey again linked up well, forcing a corner which appeared to be handled when played into the box, but the claim was dismissed by the referee.
Further chances fell Preston's way before Bailey gave her side the lead in the 67th minute, latching on to a ball over the top from Anisha Bateman to beat the oncoming keeper.
Lilywhites substitutes Laura Walker and Gemma Watson continued the siege on the Rotherham goal, both coming close with shots either narrowly off target or blocked by the home defence, before Preston's final substitute, Mel Martin, almost added a third on 83 minutes, only to see her shot cleared off the line.
Thankfully Martin's endeavours put that right in the 88th minute. Her vision in midfield picked out Walker on the right, whose shot across the keeper into the bottom left hand corner put the game beyond the home side's reach at 3-1.
In the final action of the game, Walker's pinpoint cross was met by Watson who gave her side a 4-1 advantage with a superb finish.
PNE boss Simon Gerrard admitted:
"Hopefully this can start a run that sets us up to move up the table. We've not been playing badly and have certainly deserved more from two of the games we've played so far.
"The girls seem to have a bit of confidence about them now and realise that we can do it, so my only message to them is that they need to be a bit more clinical and then we'll start to pick up some more wins. The girls have got the bit between their teeth so we just need to carry that forward now.
"Really we had too many opportunities at Rotherham before we actually put one away so we just need to find that extra bit of bite in our finishing and we'll get our rewards.
"This league is always a very tough, tight competition where everyone can take points off everybody. I thought Lincoln were going to be the dominant force, and with the way they started I didn't think anybody would stop them, but they've then drawn and lost in their last couple of games.
"Likewise, I didn't think Manchester City would be anywhere near where they are now, but they've done very well and got a lot of points at this stage, so there are always a lot of surprises, and given the way we played in pre-season I think a lot of people will be surprised that it took us until last weekend to record our last result."
Preston progress with this victory and their first three points into their next league game - a home tie against bottom placed Curzon Ashton.
PNE: Jenny Horrocks, Alison Taberner, Louise Belcher, Sarah Jones, Vikki Eastwood, Sarah McCrea, Anisha Bateman, Sarah Berry, Louise Cafferkey, Sam Cadwallader, Hannah Bailey Subs: Mel Martin, Gemma Watson, Laura Walker, Angela Willoughby.
The reserves obtained another 2-2 draw at home to Lincoln - defender Jenny Wootton and Mel Bartley being the scorers.
