Preston hold out to go into play-off final

Derby 0 Preston 0

Preston are marching towards Cardiff to face West Ham in the Coca-Cola Championship play-off final after Derby striker Grzegorz Rasiak blew his side’s hopes by missing a late penalty.

North End protected their healthy first-leg advantage with a gritty defensive display to secure an aggregate 2-0 victory and set up a rerun of the 1964 FA Cup Final with the Hammers at the Millennium Stadium on May 30.

They were given a helping hand with Rasiak’s missed spot-kick, but Preston’s own defensive prowess was the key factor behind their success following an absorbing 90 minutes.

Billy Davies’ side now lie on the brink of a possible return to the top-flight for the first time in 44 years and a subsequent £20million Premiership bounty as the grand prize.

Davies has engineered a remarkable renaissance at Deepdale since taking over from Craig Brown last August, when the club lay 20th in the division.

The former Motherwell chief has not only dragged the club to within 90 minutes of from the Premiership – he has done it with a £3.5million wage bill, one of the five smallest in the division.

For Derby counterpart George Burley, the pain of failure was particularly acute after the Rams boss suffered the fourth play-off defeat of his managerial career following three previous failures with Ipswich.

Burley went for broke from the outset by handing shock starting roles to Rasiak and Inigo Idiakez.

Rasiak, the Rams’ 17-goal leading scorer, missed his side’s last three games after undergoing a hernia operation just a fortnight ago, but the real shock was the return of playmaker Idiakez.

The 11-goal Spaniard suffered a groin injury in training last week, causing him to miss Sunday’s first-leg at Deepdale, and had been ruled out of action for up to six weeks by Burley.

However, with the onus firmly on Derby to attack, Idiakez and Rasiak were both risked while Adam Bolder also returned to the starting line-up.

Both teams took to the pitch in front a sell-out 31,310 crowd and to a wall of noise.

Derby began strongly, but Preston were clearly determined not to surrender their advantage and defensive duo Chris Lucketti and Claude Davis soon formed a watertight barrier for the visitors.

Tottenham-bound prodigy Tom Huddlestone fired in a speculative 35-yard shot which deflected out for a corner before tensions among the home supporters began to mount.

Rasiak was shown a yellow card for throwing the ball in frustration at Davis - and with the Pole and Idiakez clearly not fully fit, the Rams’ two most potent weapons failed to offer the fluidity and penetration which have stood their side in good stead this season.

However, Preston were nearly caught out shortly after the half hour mark, when Rasiak was fouled midway inside the visitors’ half and quickly got up to play a free-kick through to Paul Peschisolido.

The Canadian forward raced on to the ball ahead of Preston’s defence and strode forward into the box only to overrun the ball with just Carlo Nash to beat. In a rare attacking sortie, Preston’s American winger Eddie Lewis took a tumble inside the Derby box, but his appeals were swiftly waved away.

Burley brought on attacking winger Marco Reich at the interval in place of the ineffective Tommy Smith. And although Derby soon gained the upper hand, Rasiak was lucky not receive a second yellow card for a late challenge on Davis.

North End midfielder Brian O’Neil was then shown a yellow card for dissent before Burley made another switch, replacing Jeff Kenna with experienced midfielder Ian Taylor.

Peschisolido was then booked as Derby continued to huff and puff to no avail before Preston should have snatched the lead after Richard Cresswell orchestrated a delightfully engineered move.

The former Sheffield Wednesday striker collected the ball on the edge of Derby’s penalty area before neatly finding Paul McKenna in space on the right flank.

He whipped in a vicious cross from the right flank and although David Nugent arrived at the far post, he fired wide from close range.

Derby were handed a potential massive lifeline seconds later after Rasiak tumbled under Chris Lucketti’s challenge.

The Pole stepped up from the spot but could only fire a left-foot effort against the Nash’s right-hand post before the ball rebounded back out and Preston cleared the danger.