Albion keep battling

Towards the end of last season they gathered themselves after a run of defeats to stay up by the skin of their teeth via a win at Rotherham and flurry of draws, the last of them at home to Ipswich on the final day.

They are in deeper trouble this time and will need more than one victory in the eight matches which remain to avoid relegation but a repeat of that drama is still plausible.

The Seagulls are on a knife-edge at the moment. A favourable set of results could see them within two points of safety. If they lose and Sheffield Wednesday win it would be eight points, surely an insurmountable gap.

Stopping the rot was not the only encouragement to be gleaned from parity with one of the cluster of teams pursuing two play-off places.

The individual errors which have cost Albion dear in recent weeks were eradicated. In fact, they defended valiantly, particularly in a second half dominated by Preston.

A battling performance also re-enforced the impression that the spirit is still strong, even after damaging back-to-back defeats at Crewe and Plymouth. You can be certain on this evidence that Mark McGhee's young side will not go down without an almighty fight.

"It was a point we can build on," McGhee said. "The others drew so it was important we got a point.

"I thought Hull were still in it but they won so that's them out of it. Crewe got a great point against Southampton, who are becoming a good team, and Millwall have got to be pleased with themselves at Ipswich.

"I think we all had difficult games. What we have shown each other is that we are all fighting, we're all still in it."

It's advantage Sheffield Wednesday at the moment but I have a hunch the Yorkshiremen, held at home by Albion's hosts next Saturday QPR, will go down.

The Seagulls' trip to Millwall on April Fool's Day and Wednesday's visit for the penultimate home game on Easter Monday look bound to have a major bearing on the final outcome.

The primary problem - a shortage of goals - was unchanged against a side with a mean away record, bettered only by champions-elect Reading. Preston have let in just 14 goals in 19 games on the road.

Colin Kazim-Richards spent most of the afternoon scrapping gallantly in an uneven contest with the twin towers at the heart of their defence, Claude Davis and Youl Mawene.

McGhee revealed: "It wasn't by design, we didn't set out for Colin to be playing on his own.

"At times Seb Carole has his own agenda but you kind of have to let him go into other areas of the field because he is a terrific player and gets things moving.

"He did at times leave Colin isolated and Colin worked very hard to put them under pressure. Had Colin been playing with Danny Dichio I think we would have won."

Kazim-Richards would have been playing with Dichio had McGhee been successful in his bid to sign Preston's widely travelled centre forward during the January transfer window.

Dichio, one of several physically imposing specimens in the Preston line-up, would be celebrating his first Championship goals of the campaign today were it not for the heroics of Wayne Henderson and Gary Hart.

Henderson plunged to his left in the 17th minute to make a smart one-handed stop when Dave Nugent pulled a cross back into his path.

Seven minutes later, Henderson produced a similar effort from a shot by Nugent, struck deliberately through the legs of Paul McShane.

Henderson should have been picking the ball out of his net shortly afterwards when Tyrone Mears headed inches wide from a Chris Sedgwick cross.

Preston's purple patch midway through the first half was followed by Albion's best two chances of the contest.

Alex Frutos, stretching to meet an incisive cross by Adam Hinshelwood, could not direct his effort on target and, on the stroke of half-time, the inspirational McShane punched his fist into the turf in frustration after heading wide from a Frutos corner.

McGhee, having started the match with three central defenders, had by this stage reverted to 4-4-2 to combat Preston's switch from two to three strikers, two wide and one through the middle.

Adam El-Abd had to be moved to leftback for the second half in place of the unwell Joel Lynch, whose failure to re-appear must have frustrated former Albion boss Mike Bailey.

Wolves scout Bailey, together with a scout from Portsmouth, had been sent specifically to watch the promising defender. Just as well then that Lynch has signed a three-year contract, which at least protects Albion financially.

Hart, Lynch's replacement, made an immediate impact, blocking Dichio's shot from a Callum Davidson corner on the line. In the same incident, Davis struck a post with an angled drive and that was as close as either side came.

Patrick Agyemang and Brett Ormerod were brought on as Preston probed relentlessly without reward. Instead it was Albion almost snatching the spoils, Hart firing wide late-on.

The Seagulls have now failed to score in six of the last eight matches but they are in good company. Preston, knocked out of the play-off zone by Wolves, have found the net once in a winless five-game run in all competitions.

Albion (5-3-2): Henderson 8; Hinshelwood 7, El-Abd 7, McShane 7, Butters 7, Lynch 6; Carpenter 7, Hammond 7, Frutos 7; Carole 7, Kazim-Richards 7. Subs Hart 7 for Lynch (ill 46), Loft for Frutos (withdrawn 90), Mayo, Martin, Gatting.

Preston (4-4-2): Nash; Mears, Davis, Mawene, Alexander; Sedgwick, Jarrett, McKenna, Davidson; Nugent, Dichio. Subs: Agyemang for Dichio (withdrawn 72), Whaley for Sedgwick (withdrawn 72), Ormerod for Nugent (withdrawn 82), Hill, Neal.