Paul Heckingbottom hails Milutin Osmajic hit as Preston beat Sheffield Wednesday

Paul Heckingbottom praised a stock Milutin Osmajic finish after Preston’s 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Deepdale.

The 26-year-old had been missing since November 5 due to a nine-game suspension and a minor hamstring injury but he showed no signs of rustiness with a thumping 61st-minute strike to double Preston’s lead.

Ali McCann had put the Lilywhites ahead with a composed opener after 28 minutes and Lewis Dobbin slammed in a late third.

On Osmajic’s goal, the Preston boss said: “He knows where the goal is. He’s not always the best option, sometimes a bit of guile is the right way to go, but certainly, a lot of the goals he scores which maybe others wouldn’t are that type of finish.

“It’s instinctive. He knows where the goal is and when he hits it, it stays hit.”

The result keeps Preston in the play-off hunt, leaving them in sixth, and it is their first victory in four matches.

On the game itself, Heckingbottom added: “It was a really strong performance. We talk about this league a lot and you can’t let it frustrate you because so many times performances don’t align with results so you have to focus on what you want to do and key moments in games but today I felt the performance did align with the result.

“I’ve seen so much of Wednesday this season for lots of different reasons and they’ve been dangerous in every game, regardless of result, particularly in the first 30 minutes when they have a real go. They can cause carnage. They did that away at Ipswich, at home to Hull, and to us at Hillsborough.

“But I felt today, at no point did we give them any hope or any opportunities to get that foothold in the game and become dangerous so I thought it was a really strong performance.”

The Owls are now without a win in 18 matches and sit on minus-seven points as a result of off-the-pitch turbulence.

There were periods in the match where the division’s basement boys gave a competitive account of themselves and the thousands of Wednesday fans who did make the trip were in a vocal mood from the first minute until the last.

Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen said: “The performance up until the first goal was really good. Defensively we were well-organised. Offensively we had a good balance to play in, to play around, to play in behind, to run a little bit.

“After the first goal, it was important to get the rhythm back before [half-time] and it was still an equal game. In the second half, we were really getting into the game and then we conceded the second goal in transition.

“There’s a reason why Preston are so high in the league. They are physical, a very strong team, really well-organised, [and they have] really good players so it was a tough day.

“Until the second goal, there was a lot of energy and a lot of belief but it’s tough to be 2-0 down to then bring the game back again. We didn’t have the energy to create big chances. We had the ball a lot but we didn’t create enough and this is what we’re working on.”