Draper’s Late Winner Secures Victory for Lincoln Over Preston
Freddie Draper stepped off the bench and twisted the knife into Preston’s troubled start, glancing in an 81st-minute winner as Lincoln snatched a 1-0 victory at Deepdale.
One touch. One chance. Game over.
Draper’s late sting
For all of Preston’s pressure, it was a long throw that broke them.
Andrei Coubis launched it into the box with nine minutes to play, bodies jostling, the home defence flat-footed. Draper moved first, stealing half a yard and guiding the faintest of headers past Daniel Iversen. A tiny touch, a huge moment.
Lincoln’s players sprinted to the away end. The Imps’ fourth league game unbeaten. Preston’s misery deepening: just three points from the first 21 on offer.
Tom Shaw’s side then dug in, repelling a late aerial bombardment as Preston slung ball after ball into the area. Lincoln didn’t flinch. They simply refused to let it go.
Preston press, Lincoln survive
The pattern of the afternoon had been set early. Paul Heckingbottom’s team came out aggressively, throwing crosses into the Lincoln box and trying to pin the visitors back.
Yet the first real warning came at the other end. Reeco Hackett hung up a teasing cross for Rob Street, whose header flicked off a defender and behind. It was a reminder that Lincoln could hurt them even while under pressure.
Preston almost took the lead in bizarre fashion when Andrija Vukcevic’s cross arced towards the top corner, forcing George Wickens into an acrobatic save. The goalkeeper was busy and sharp.
Johnny Kenny then wasted a big chance, blazing over from inside the area. Stanley Mills drove infield and let fly, only to see Wickens beat his effort away.
The hosts kept coming. Kenny slid in at the near post to meet an Alfie Devine cross and missed by inches. Liam Gibbs whipped in another dangerous ball that flew just too high for Callum Lang, then dragged a shot narrowly wide himself. The pressure built, but the net stayed untouched.
Same story after the break
The second half opened with more of the same: white shirts advancing, crosses raining in, Lincoln forced to defend deep.
Lang met one delivery at the far post and Wickens, again, got something on it with his foot to turn it behind. Kenny tried his luck once more and the Lincoln keeper answered again. Preston looked closer and closer to the breakthrough, but their finishing never matched their approach play.
Lincoln, though restricted to counter-attacks, carved out moments of their own. Conor McGrandles forced Iversen into a save, then clipped a ball to the back post that was just too high for Ben House.
House then wriggled into space in the area and fired a ball across goal that smashed into Harry Clarke’s body. Lincoln appealed for a penalty. The referee waved it away.
Preston’s frustration grew. Jordan Storey thought he had finally cracked Lincoln when he met a loose ball, only for Dom Jeffries to hack his effort off the line. Another chance gone. Another groan around Deepdale.
Lincoln’s ugly edge
That miss proved decisive. Lincoln stayed in the game, waited for their moment and then punished Preston with the kind of scrappy, direct goal Shaw openly embraces.
Afterwards, Heckingbottom cut a frustrated figure.
“We’re really frustrated,” he said. “While we’re not in front, they’re going to have their counter-attacks, opportunities and set plays and 90 per cent of the time we dealt with it, but ultimately it was their biggest weapon.
“There’s no lack of effort there. We had opportunities, but we didn’t force the big moments to go our way. They defended their box really well and they were the ones who forced a scrappy goal in at the other end.
“I can’t be critical of the effort of the players, but we are missing that – what Lincoln did today – being the ones that force the ball in. The margins are so fine.”
Shaw, by contrast, sounded every bit like a coach whose team knows exactly what it is.
“Our supporters want full throttle football and that’s what we’re trying to give them,” he said. “We’ve built this success over the last few years on the real ugly side of football, and we’re very proud of how we play.
“We’ve recruited, nurtured and developed a set of players that have got incredible character like I’ve never seen before in my time in the game. We pride ourselves on those horrible, ugly things.
“All the other stuff will come over time and we will be threatening at this level. There were glimpses of that today and Freddie gets the goal he deserves.”
Lincoln walked away with three hard-earned points and another clean sheet built on that “ugly” edge. Preston walked off to the sound of their own anxiety growing louder.
If they keep wasting chances like this, how long before patience at Deepdale runs out?
