Preston came from behind to beat Coventry 3-2 at Deepdale to end a winless run of seven games and climb back into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.
Haji Wright put the Sky Blues ahead before Duane Holmes swiftly equalised, and Preston skipper Alan Browne put the hosts ahead from the penalty spot before half-time.
Milutin Osmajic headed North End’s third after the break, before Wright grabbed his and Coventry’s second before full-time.
The win sees Preston move into sixth place while Coventry remain in 20th and have now lost four games in succession.
Both sides went into the clash out of form and Preston’s Jordan Storey had the afternoon’s first chance, side footing over from close range.
From a Sky Blues corner, Preston countered through Liam Millar who fed in Osmajic but he fired straight at Ben Wilson after 10 minutes.
The hosts continued to have better opportunities as Liam Lindsay nodded Mads Frokjaer-Jensen’s right-wing cross wide on the quarter-hour mark.
Coventry stopper Wilson was fortunate not to concede after failing to hold on to Browne’s effort but saw it bobble just wide.
The visitors took the lead against the run of play when Freddie Woodman parried Matt Godden’s shot into Wright’s path and the Sky Blues man put Coventry ahead after 33 minutes, though there were suggestions of offside.
However, Preston were back on level terms not long after when Coventry failed to clear and Holmes blasted a low effort past Wilson seven minutes from half-time.
North End won a penalty shortly after when Kyle McFadzean bundled Osmajic over in the box and skipper Browne duly converted to give Preston the lead.
Ryan Lowe’s side looked for a third before the break, but Osmajic could not direct Brad Potts’ dangerous low cross to the target.
Following an open start to the second half, Coventry substitute Ellis Simms fired at Woodman as the hour-mark approached, before the Preston stopper tipped Ben Sheaf’s fierce drive over.
Sheaf rifled through a crowd as Coventry sought an equaliser, while Millar’s deflected shot was claimed by Wilson at the other end.
But Preston got their third when Millar’s floated cross was nodded home from close range by Osmajic with 19 minutes to go.
Wright tried to reduce the deficit with a long-range effort but could not find the target, while Simms lashed against the side-netting shortly after.
Coventry did grab another back when substitute Josh Eccles fired at Woodman and, though he kept the 83rd-minute effort out, Wright was again first there to tap home.
But it was not enough for the Sky Blues to avoid defeat with late pressure not yielding an equaliser.
Lukaku among five withdrawals from Belgium squad
Romelu Lukaku has joined four other players in withdrawing from the Belgium squad due to injury ahead of Monday's Nations League finale against Israel.
Belgium sit third in Nations League Group A2 following their 1-0 defeat to Italy on Thursday, a result that ended their hopes of reaching next year's quarter-finals.
They are simply playing to avoid automatic relegation when they face Israel behind closed doors in Hungary, with a draw enough to send the Red Devils through to a play-off against a third-placed finisher from League B.
Napoli striker Lukaku – Belgium's all-time leading scorer with 85 goals in 120 caps – has joined Aston Villa's Amadou Onana, Chelsea's Romeo Lavia, Arthur Theate of Eintracht Frankfurt and Brugge's Maxim De Cuyper in dropping out with unspecified issues.
Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne had already asked not to be included in Domenico Tedesco's party as he works his way back to full fitness after suffering a thigh injury.
Sebastiaan Bornauw, Koni De Winter, Jeremy Doku and Youri Tielemans were also left out of Tedesco's squad due to fitness concerns, while uncapped Coventry City striker Norman Bassette has now been called up as cover.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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