Brown fails his first English exam

Preston North End 1 Crystal Palace

Craig Brown's first meaningful game as Preston manager provided lessons in the competitive nature of the English First Division as the former Scotland coach saw one of his new charges sent off prior to an opening-day defeat decided by a spectacular goal.

Reduced to 10 men by the dismissal of Eric Skora early in the second half, Preston led through new signing Ricardo Fuller but were quickly pegged back by Darren Powell before Steve Kabba fired into the roof of the net from the edge of the 18-yard box with four minutes remaining.

To add insult to injury, the 21-year-old Kabba would not have been playing but for a sequence of events explained by his manager, Trevor Francis, who was ready to loan him to Grimsby. "He scored four times for our reserves against Grimsby, after which their manager, Paul Groves, asked if he could take him on loan," Francis said. "At the time I was talking terms with Dele Adebola, who has been training with us, and had we reached an agreement for Dele to sign I would have let Kabba go and he would have been playing for Grimsby this afternoon."

Instead, having taken the field with 30 minutes left, the young striker was wrecking Brown's plans to launch his career as an English club manager with at least a point.

Despite the departure of Skora, shown a second yellow card after checking substitute Tommy Black's goalward run two minutes into the second half, Preston went ahead through Fuller. Brown's signing from the Jamaican club Tivoli Gardens came up with a clever finish when Richard Cresswell's flicked header fell nicely into his path, lobbing the ball over the advancing Matt Clarke.

But sloppy defending allowed Powell, a centre-half signing who joined Palace from Brentford only on Friday, to stab the ball over Preston's line within two minutes.

No defender could do anything about the winner, however, after Curtis Fleming and Dougie Freedman set up Kabba, whose scorching strike proved well beyond Teuvo Molainen's ability to prevent.

"It was a well-taken goal but a smash-and-grab result so far as I was concerned," Brown said. "It is a disappointment to start with a defeat but I don't think many sides will come to Deepdale and win this season."

Worryingly for Francis, who said the Adebola deal will not go ahead unless the striker lowers his demands, the player he signed from Birmingham City, Andrew Johnson, was taken to hospital with a suspected cracked neck vertebra after a fall at the end of the first half.

Preston North End 1
Fuller 68

Crystal Palace 2
Powell 69, Kabba 86

Half-time 0-0 Attendance: 14,663