Grayson has always built his Preston side on defnsive stability and apart from the mistake ridden display at Hillsborough, Preston have been fairly solid this season with teams having to be classy to break down North End.
The team has been mishaped due to injuries and this continued with a back three of Cunningham, Wright and Woods. Vermijl and Reach played as wing backs. Going forward creativity was lacking not for the first time this season.
Both sides huffed and puffed in the late kick off for television purposes. The last time the two sides met was in the Millennium Stadium 14 years ago in the Championship play off final but both are significantly far away from the quality on display during that match.
Pickford was forced into one save of note throughout the whole match. Preston didn't fair much better with the strikers still failing to make an impact. Substitute Hughill should have passed to Johnson who was clean through but instead he opted wrongly to shoot.
Preston will be the happier of the two as they are picking up momentum through clean sheets and stay above Bolton. If North End can find some attacking flair then they should shoot up into mid-table but for now they retain a place above the strugglers.