PNE Women continued their fine form with an exciting 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest Ladies on Sunday afternoon.
A double from Katie Anderton and goals from Keeleigh Savage and Melissa Ball sealed the three points for North End despite Forest pushing for an equaliser late on.
The hosts dominated much of the early possession but it was PNE who opened the scoring with 26 minutes played.
Gemma Watson played a chip ball through the defence and Anderton nipped in ahead of the goalkeeper to give Preston the lead.
1-0 became 2-0 eight minutes later when Savage tapped in from close range at the back post.
A flowing PNE move saw Beth Stanfield pick up the ball on the right hand side of the area she drilled across goal for the unmarked Savage to tap in for an easy finish.
Shortly before half-time Forest got a goal back through midfielder Natasha Meade, as she scored a freak goal which saw her corner drift straight into the back of the net, much to the frustration of manager Mark Read.
Meade then played a part in the goal which saw Forest pull back level in the 56th minute, playing a through ball for Andrea Ball to chase after and slip under the body of Danielle Brown to make it 2-2.
Anderton added her second of the game within ten minutes of Forest’s equaliser and it was identical to their first goal.
From the same corner quadrant, Anderton swung the ball towards the far post and it evaded Vanessa Kinnerley in the Forest goal to land in the back of the net.
Almost instantly after the restart PNE had their fourth goal of the game with the assist coming from goalkeeper Brown, her clearance evaded the Forest defence and Ball latched onto it and fired past Kinnerly to extend Preston’s advantage.
Forest set up an exciting finale when they reduced the deficit to one through Andrea Bell but they couldn’t force an equaliser and PNE saw out the victory.
The result means that North End can leapfrog to second in the table with a victory over Blackburn Rovers Ladies on Wednesday night at the UCLan Sports Arena, 7.30pm kick off.
PNE: Brown, Stanfield, Taberner, Lupton, Forshaw, Foster (Rawcliffe 70), Walker (c), Watson (Hutton 85), Anderton, Ball, Savage.