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Both Remco van der Schaaf and trialist Theo Fairweather-Johnson, playing his second reserve game, hit the woodwork and both missed other chances, van der Schaaf rolling a shot wide of target and Fairweather-Johnson too high with his effort.
They were probably the best of the chances, and the 0-0 scoreline at half time was no reflection whatsoever on how the game had gone.
It didn't take us too long after the interval to finally break the deadlock, and it came via the penalty spot. Rodriguez himself went down for the ball but the Preston defender's foot was high and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Jay wasn't going to miss out on this one and hammered home from 12 yards.
The game got a bit scrappy and there were one or two nasty challenges went in that saw a couple of the Preston players getting yellow cards, but still we dominated and the best of the second half chances fell to Steve Jones who just couldn't quite get his second reserve team goal of the season.
We used our subs in the last few minutes and although 1-0 is often not enough we never looked as though this one would slip to take us to our third win in four games this season.
The teams were;
Preston: Chris Neal, Dean Stott, Sam Hart, Nathan Fairhurst, Tom Smyth, Dominic Collins, Danny Mayor, Phil Appiah, Rob Turner, John Kennedy, Neil Dougan. Subs: Connor McLaughlin, Jack Cudworth, Michael Conchie, Ryan McGreevy, Tom Owens.
b>Burnley: Diego Penny, Adam Kay, Nik Kudiersky, Chris Lynch, Christian Kalvenes, Theo Fairweather-Johnson (Chris Anderson 84), Remco van der Schaaf, Owen Coyle (Alex-Ray Harvey 81), Steve Jones, Jay Rodriguez, Alex MacDonald (Wes Fletcher 81). Subs not used: Gabor Kiraly, Dan Brown.