Striker Sam Parkin has decided to join Luton Town and not Preston North End, the Lancashire club have revealed. Town had accepted bids believed to be in the range of £300,000 from both Championship clubs.

Preston boss Paul Simpson said: "It is disappointing that Sam has chosen to sign for Luton Town, but we have to respect his decision.

"Everyone knows he was a player I was very keen on bringing to Preston North End because I believed he would improve the squad, that is now not going to happen and we will now turn our attentions elsewhere.

"His decision appears to be based solely on the location of Luton and it's proximity to London, where his family and partner are based. We are told that the financial package exactly matched that of Luton Town but we could never compete on the location."

Parkin, who joined the Blues from Swindon for £450,000 a year ago, is from Roehampton in south-west London and found it difficult to settle in Ipswich, moving out of his town centre flat some months ago.

The frontman scored one of his five Town goals (all away, all in last season's orange away shirt) in tonight's corresponding fixture at QPR, the club where he was a season ticket holder as a boy.

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