On a bitterly cold night in Lancashire, Yeovil Town battled out a 1-1 draw with promotion chasing Preston North End.

A first half injury time goal from Gozie Ugwu secured a half time lead for the Globvers before a Sylvan Ebanks-Blake goal ensured both teams had to settle for a point.

Town were forced into making two changes from the side that beat Bradford City 1-0 on Saturday.

Ajay Leitch-Smith and Nathan Ralph missed the trip due to picking up injuries in the victory at the weekend.

In came Liam Shephard and Alex Smith for their first starts for Town. New signing Shephard started at right back with Seth Twumasi moving to right midfield.

The home side started the brighter with half chances falling to Gallagher and in loan striker Jermaine Beckford.

Town’s first real shot at goal came after 17 minutes when Alex Smith’s long range shot went wide of the Preston goal.

After having their hands full on Saturday marking Stead and Hanson Kieffer Moore and Stephen Arthurworrey were dealing with the presence of Beckford and Kevin Davies well.

Just after the half hour mark it was Moore who had Town’s first real chance at goal. A Foley free kick wasn’t cleared by the Preston defence and with the ball bouncing around, Moore saw his right-footed volley go narrowly wide of the upright.

Moments later Ugwu was denied by the feet of Johnstone when he wriggled his way through the defence.

Just before the half time interval the home side had keeper Johnstone to thank for keeping the score at 0-0. Foley’s wonderful volley was well saved by the Preston shot stopper.

With the fourth official signalling one minute of added on time Town took the lead. Foley’s free kick was flicked on at thw front post and Ugwu held off his marked to thunder the ball past Johnstone.

The second half started brightly for Town with goalscorer Ugwu’s shot going narrowly wide of the Preston goal.

From the resulting goal kick the home side broke away quickly with Gallgher finding himself with room to cross from the left. His cross luckily evaded everyone and Town managed to clear.

Town made their first substitution of the evening on 53 minutes, when goal scorer Ugwu was forced off with what appeared to be a injury to be replaced by James Hayter.

With 15 minutes remaining Town forced two corners in quick succession and from the second one could have doubled their lead. The head of Arthurworrey met Foley’s set piece, but the Fulham loanee’s effort went just over the bar.

Moments later the home side drew level when substitute Ebanks-Blake was put through by a neat pass through the Town defence and rounded keeper Steer to tap the ball into the empty net.

With just under five minutes on the clock the home side thought they had taken the lead when an acrobatic overhead kick from Ebanks-Blake went narrowly over Steer’s crossbar.