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Stoke 1-1 Preston
Patrick Agyemang's fourth goal in five games earned Preston a point at Stoke.
City debutant Lee Hendrie wasted a good close-range chance and also hit the bar with a free-kick in the opening period.
But Ricardo Fuller's low effort, his first goal for the club, finally put the Potters in front four minutes before the break.
But North End played their way back into the game after the interval and Agyemang snatched a point with a classy finish to a swift counter-attack.
# Stoke manager Tony Pulis:
"We deserved to win by a country mile.
"We're disappointed but that's the way it's been going - we just can't see it out.
"One or two players still want to do their own thing instead of working to what we want as a team but there were lots and lots of positives.
"We played some smashing football but we needed that second goal."
# Preston manager Paul Simpson:
"I am satisfied with a point.
"The first thing was not to be beaten because we knew they would be scrapping.
"They got a lift going into half-time and we knew we had to do something in the second half to address it.
"A draw was probably a fair result over the 90 minutes. We didn't want to lose and go into the international break on the back of a defeat."
Stoke: Simonsen, Griffin, Hoefkens, Duberry, Higginbotham, Hendrie, Brammer, Russell, Sweeney (Paterson 78), Sidibe, Fuller (Bangoura 72).
Subs Not Used: Pulis, Whitley, Wilkinson.
Booked: Duberry, Russell, Brammer.
Goals: Fuller 41.
Preston: Nash, Alexander, Chilvers, St. Ledger, Hill (Dichio 62), Sedgwick, McKenna, Pugh, Whaley (Neal 74), Agyemang (McCormack 79), Nugent.
Subs Not Used: Lonergan, Wilson.
Booked: Chilvers, Nugent.
Goals: Agyemang 63.
Att: 14,342
Ref: A Woolmer (Northamptonshire).
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