A VERY lucky man, West Ham chairman Terence Brown. Just as the first cries of "sack the board" echoed around Deepdale, David Connolly popped up with a winner.
OK, so the Hammers' summer signing cost only £285,000 from Wimbledon and he was rated only good enough to start the game on the bench.
But he does possess 36 caps for the Republic of Ireland and a First Division pedigree. And at West Ham these days, that is as good as the fans are going to get.
Sadly, how much longer they will have him is now very much open to debate. Within an hour of scoring, the hero of the day had launched a searing attack on manager Glenn Roeder for giving his place to loan signing Neil Mellor.
Connolly (pictured right scoring), apparently an equally angry man at the team hotel on the eve of the match, suggested he would now be looking for another club.
So the claret and blue circus continues.
The West Ham fans returned south blissfully unaware that Connolly intended saying ‘hello' and waving ‘goodbye' on the same afternoon.
Brown probably thinks the muted response to his conniving summer sale of Joe Cole and Glen Johnson to Chelsea means he got away with it.
Meanwhile, Roeder stumbles on with three points, still insisting he is the man for the job despite all evidence to the contrary.
His relationship with key individuals deteriorates by the day and he had to call security to remove defender Sebastien Schemmel from the training ground last week after another row.
As the song says: "There may be trouble ahead."
This week brings two home games and ‘Brown Out' protests are scheduled for both. The fall-out from this win will do little to placate fans who also blame Roeder and Brown for relegation.
And if Manchester United are successful in prising away Jermain Defoe before the Premier League season starts, Upton Park will be in uproar.
Connolly got the winner but Defoe left nobody in any doubt that his presence will be vital to West Ham's promotion challenge this season.
True, this was a useful win in a pressure situation. But a squad as threadbare as West Ham's will not have it their own way for long.
In all likelihood, they did not beat one of the better teams in the division at Deepdale — yet they still required large slices of luck to do so.
Preston had a dead cert penalty turned down, another that looked worth a shout — and most referees would have ruled West Ham's winner offside.
It wasn't. But it took a fair few television replays to prove that — and the majority left Deepdale believing Craig Brown's side had been hard done by.
A point certainly would not have flattered them after taking the lead and monstering West Ham's back four for almost an hour.
In that time, Ricardo Fuller took apart Tomas Repka, while Anton Ferdinand felt the full force of the decision to flog right-back Johnson.
Promoted beyond his ability and experience, he was at fault for the first goal after two minutes. He will get better — but he may pay a heavy price first.
The same can be said of Mellor, who Connolly claimed had trained with the team for an hour before being given his start.
It looked that way, too, though Roeder would counter that as Connolly came on and scored the winner his judgment was correct.
Behind the happy campers upfront, however, West Ham's central midfield is old and tired and the work-shy Don Hutchison's gall in throwing his shirt to the fans at the end takes some beating.
For the lucky recipient at least, there was one consolation: it is unlikely to have needed washing.
David James kept his usual foot in the twin camps of ability and calamity.
He twice charged towards the ball at inappropriate moments and was fortunate not to have been humiliated.
As for the rest, they were a little bit ho, a little bit hum.
This was apparent as early as the second minute when a Graham Alexander cross for Eddie Lewis found Ferdinand in repose, giving the young American a free header and a goal.
But Preston's lead lasted all of two minutes before Defoe pounced on a Hutchison pass like a youthful Romario to slip the ball past keeper Jonathan Gould.
West Ham were level and from there it should have been plain sailing.
To Preston's credit, it was not. Hutchison looked to have fouled Richard Cresswell in the penalty area in the 22nd minute and Repka certainly took Fuller out in the 34th.
Perhaps, that is why it seemed such rank injustice to the home fans when sub Connolly timed his run to seize a ball from Matthew Etherington after 69 minutes for the winner.
Manager Brown and the crowd howled in protest, Connolly's finish stood. For the visitors, at least, all's well that ends well. Except at West Ham these days, it never does.
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