Milutin Osmajic scored on his return from a nine-game ban as Preston North End beat the Championship’s bottom side Sheffield Wednesday to end a four-game winless run at Deepdale.
Osmajic, who was handed the suspension in November after being charged with racially abusing Burnley midfielder Hannibal Mejbri, fired into the top corner to double Preston’s lead in the second half.
Ali McCann had coolly slotted in his first goal of the season before the break and substitute Lewis Dobbin capped a comfortable win with a third late on.
Following three successive 1-1 draws at Deepdale and a defeat at Wrexham on Monday, Paul Heckingbottom’s side climb back into the play-off places.
Such is the inconsistency of most of the sides at the top of the table, the Lilywhites are just four points off second-placed Ipswich despite drawing 10 games this season.
If Preston are to have genuine ambitions of making a promotion push, January is likely to be a pivotal month for the Lilywhites.
They visit eighth-placed Bristol City on Sunday and also face top-five sides Hull City, Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town over the next few weeks.
But with Montenegro striker Osmajic now back in the side they will be hopeful of turning more of those draws into victories.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday, who are still waiting for confirmation of a takeover, remain 32 points from the safety line and are already preparing for life in League One.
Their only league victory of the campaign came in September and their winless run now stretches to 18 matches.
Preston were good value for their victory and could have won by a bigger margin.
Northern Ireland international McCann had not scored since October 2024 but he took his goal with supreme confidence.
Jamal Lewis stole the ball from Dominic Iorfa and whipped it to the edge of the box where McCann’s first touch took him clean through and he finished low past Pierce Charles.
Charles kept it at 1-0 as he made a fine double save from McCann and Alfie Devine and made another good stop to deny Devine after Osmajic had doubled the lead.
The Owls, who have only scored 18 times this season, came closest when Daniel Iversen kept out Bailey Cadamarteri’s header – their only shot on target.
