Neither Preston North End nor Bristol Rovers were able to find the breakthrough at Deepdale in the first 45 minutes this evening.

Preston had an early shout turned down for a penalty when Joe Garner went down inside the area from a free kick delivery, but the referee waved away the appeals from the home side.

The visitors were forced into an early change when Steve Cotterill replaced Nathan Baker with Derrick Williams.

Samir Carruthers went close for the visitors on 37 minutes with a left-footed effort that flashed past the post, but neither side created anything too clear cut in the opening exchanges.

Garner came the closest out of both sides to opening the scoring, but his powerful effort struck the crossbar in first-half stoppage time.