Preston North End lost for the second time in a matter of days against fellow play-off hopefuls Derby County to leave the home side's promotion ambitions hanging by a thread.
Derby once again owed enormous gratitude to their talisman, Wayne Rooney, who scored a trademark free-kick from just outside of the area in the eighteenth minute.
Preston had some opportunities to level but Derby stood firm providing an assured display across the ninety minutes.
The victory will please Rams manager Phillip Cocu as his side extended their winning run post-lockdown to three in a row ahead of a defining and difficult run in for the final 6 games.
Although, the Lilywhites will be relieved to see the back of the most in-form team in the division they know they must start finding wins soon to avoid their season from petering out.
Story of the Game
Following their defeat to Cardiff City at the weekend, Preston manager Alex Neil decided to ring the changes with five fresh faces brought in for this mid-week encounter.
Cocu's only changes were enforced, with defender Andre Wisdom the unfortunate victim of a horrific knife attack in Liverpool whilst Welsh wide-man Tom Lawrence was suspended, being dismissed in Derby's win last-time out versus Reading.
Preston began the game by celebrating their five thousandth game in the Football League, unfortunately there was precious little else to cheer about once the whistle blew.
Neil's side tried to make their home advantage count early, competing the opening phases within Derby's half and trying to press the away side back, though a lack of cohesion between them was apparent as a mix-up between centre backs Paul Huntington and Ben Davies allowed Martyn Waghorn to break through clean on goal only to find his fierce effort blocked by goalkeeper Declan Rudd.
The game stuck to this pattern for the ensuing quarter of an hour and it was in the seventeenth minute that the game's defining moment occurred. It started through youngster Louie Sibley, who was contentiously awarded a free kick on the edge of the Preston area, incoming starter Huntington was lucky to stay on the pitch in the aftermath after appearing to stamp on the teenager.
Derby's gripes about that were short-lived as they duly punished Preston as England's record goalscorer Rooney displayed his class with a sublime curling effort, wrong-footing Rudd to beat him at his near post.
Derby preceded to take control of the game from this point as Rooney dictated the tempo showcasing a glimpse of his passing ability. The Rams could have easily doubled their lead but for mistiming their shots and Rudd dealing well with strikes from range.
By the final ten minutes of the opening half both teams had lost some of their rhythm leading to harmless pot shots from range.
As the second half got underway, Preston began to play with the urgency you would expect from a team chasing their first appearance in the top flight since nineteen sixty-one. For all of their endeavour it was still the Rams who looked more threatening as Rudd scurried out to stop full back Max Lowe on running through on goal.
The hosts threw bodies into the box in the final ten minutes but only tested Derby goalkeeper Ben Hamer once as a teasing cross was floated into the box by substitute Joshua Harrop.
As Rudd went up to try and help Preston snatch an equaliser Derby youngster Max Bird had the chance to double the Rams' advantage from fourty yards with an open goal in front of him. Thankfully Rudd's blushes were spared as Bird lacked the technical composure of his captain hitting the ball wide.
Disciplined Derby display will please Cocu
This may not have been your free flowing attacking Derby side supporters may have been used to seeing in the past few games but their organisation and work-rate will have been well received by their Dutch manager who was renowned for these traits during his playing days.
Whilst the need for three points could not be understated, Derby were wary to press too high from the get-go surely aware of the counter-attacking threat Preston posed.
The arrival of Rooney has added another dimension of danger, especially from set pieces where once again the veteran displayed his set piece prowess to curl a sumptuous effort past the stranded Rudd.
Derby were composed on the ball in the first half as their dominance told, but after the hosts were able to find slightly more tempo to their passing play in the second half they were resilient to prevent the Lancashire side from creating any serious chances.
An epitomising moment of the game came when Sibley, subject to the earlier stamp from Huntington left his mark on the much larger defender with a hard tackle minutes after the incident.
Cocu will be delighted to have finally achieved just a first away clean sheet in the league, with a run of games that include high-flyers West Bromwich Albion, Brentford, Leeds United and not to mention their next game versus local rivals Nottingham Forest their organisation and discipline will be key.
As for Preston this performance will have left very little optimism amongst many of the supporters but all is not lost and one may suspect Neil will be drilling that message into his players.
Man of the match
Wayne Rooney - Sadly due to time we find ourselves in, his departure three minutes from time was not greeted by a round of applause from the away supporters, nevertheless another impressive performance from the captain.