Preston North End were beaten 1-0 away to Swansea City, with Ryan Manning’s long-distance strike the difference between the sides.
It was an even first half with the teams going into the break goalless, before the home side’s left-sided centre half broke the deadlock on 51 minutes, that proving the only goal of the game.
Ryan Lowe made three changes from the midweek draw against Sheffield United, with Tom Barkhuizen, Greg Cunningham and Joe Rafferty coming in to the starting XI.
The hosts created the first chance of note, with Daniel Iversen’s clearance being intercepted by Olivier Ntcham, who burst into the area, but he could only find the side netting with his effort.
At the other end, Ched Evans called Ben Hamer into action, as the goalkeeper tipped his close-range effort over the crossbar after he’d been found in the box by Barkhuizen.
Hamer would have breathed a sigh of relief on 21 minutes, as his pass out from the back was intercepted by Daniel Johnson and the Jamaican had a lot of the goal to aim at from 25 yards, but he chose to hit it first time and saw his effort go wide.
There weren’t too many chances of note in the remainder of the half, although North End were forced in to a change 36 minutes in, with the injured Barkhuizen needing to be replaced by Matthew Olosunde.
North End created the first chance of the second period, with Whiteman sending a low effort just wide from 20 yards, before van den Berg found Johnson over the top with a great pass and he looked to square it for a free Evans, but a Swansea defender came up with a big block to stop it reaching the forward.
The home side took the lead just moments later through Manning, who intercepted a pass from Whiteman before sending a rocket into the back of the back of Iversen’s net from 30 yards.
Swansea had their tails up after that point and almost doubled their lead within a couple of minutes, but Iversen produced a great save to stop Cyrus Christie’s finding the top corner.
Christie came close again on 63 minutes as his effort whistled just wide, and Iversen was then called into action again by goalscorer Manning, tipping his latest shot wide of goal.
North End changed shape and personnel after that point as they pushed for an equaliser, and they had a late chance to equalise in stoppage time through Ryan Ledson, and his fierce strike looked to be goalbound but Cunningham inadvertently deflected it wide.
Swansea City line-up: Hamer; Cabango, Naughton, Manning; Christie (Fulton, 84), Downes, Grimes, Latibeaudiere; Smith, Piroe (Joseph, 74), Ntcham (Wolf, 45). Subs not used: Fisher, Bennett, Obafemi, Walsh.
PNE line-up: Iversen; van den Berg, Bauer, Cunningham; Barkhuizen (Olosunde, 37), Whiteman (Ledson, 84), Browne, Johnson, Rafferty (Sinclair, 63); Evans, Riis. Subs not used: Ripley, Lindsay, McCann, Maguire.
Attendance: 16,842 (339 PNE fans)
Referee: Mr J Smith.