Preston North End have taken a 2-1 lead into the halfway stage of their League Cup first-round tie with Crewe Alexandra.
The match was just four minutes old when the visitors created the first golden chance to score, Jordan Hugill being brought down by Crewe keeper Ben Garratt inside the box. Hugill picked himself up to take the spot kick and duly smashed it home to break the deadlock.
Simon Grayson's men continued to push forward in the opening exchanges, and it was not long before they had doubled their lead as Will Keane fired home after the hosts had failed to clear their lines from a Neil Kilkenny free kick.
Crewe responded with a couple of their own free kicks, but David Fox saw his comfortably deflected into the arms of the keeper before Bradden Inman fired wide.
Hugill then tested Garratt once more on the half-hour mark before being guilty of missing a sitter, scuffing wide with an open goal to aim at.
That miss became doubly painful for the visitors when Crewe pulled a goal back 10 minutes before half time, Adam King drilling the ball into the bottom corner to halve the deficit.
The hosts could not complete the turnaround before the interval, however, as Preston successfully negotiated their way into the break with their lead intact.
Barney Corkhill
