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Alan Irvine's side could have no complaints as they crashed to their heaviest defeat of the season on their first visit to the Liberty Stadium.

First-half strikes by Jordi Gomez and Nathan Dyer knocked the stuffing out of North End on a night when they had no answer to the slick football of their Welsh hosts.

Sub Guillem Bauza added a third midway through the second period to kill off any hopes of a Preston fightback. And defender Alan Tate made it 4-0 with a curling shot two minutes from time.

Chris Brown got a consolation in the 90th minute. But had keeper Andrew Lonergan not pulled off two excellent saves and referee Phil Gibbs not rejected confident appeals for two Swansea penalties, the scoreline could have been even more embarrassing.

To rub salt into already gaping wounds, full-back Callum Davidson limped off after only two minutes of the match and winger Ross Wallace had to be helped off near the end, leaving a big question mark about their availability for Saturday's home game with Sheffield United.

North End got off to the worst possible start, going a goal down inside two minutes when Sean St Ledger was caught in possession by Gomez who went through to beat Lonergan into the bottom left corner.

And if that was not a bad enough opening, left-back Davidson was hurt almost straight after the goal trying to make a clearance and had to go off, youngster Nolan coming on as his replacement.

Swansea lost a man of their own before 10 minutes had gone when Darren Pratley had to be subbed after hurting his shoulder in an aerial challenge with Jon Parkin.

Nolan's first touch almost landed him in trouble when he appeared to bring down Dyer as he cut into the box from the right, but referee Phil Gibbs waved away claims for a penalty.

The slippery conditions made mistakes almost inevitable and manager Irvine was clearly upset at the number of times his players were giving the ball away.

North End were two-down just before the half hour mark when Chaplow failed to cut out a pass down the left to Gomez, he crossed to Dyer on the right and, with Nolan raising his arm for an offside flag which never came, the winger cut in and drove a shot beyond Lonergan into the bottom left corner.

It was almost 3-0 moments later when St Ledger got in the way of a cross from the right and bundled the ball behind, referee Gibbs refusing loud appeals for handball and signalling a corner instead, much to the dismay of the Swansea players.

One of Irvine's now famous half-time team talk appeared to have done the trick, at least for the opening 15 minutes of the second period, with Preston seeing more of the ball and actually getting within range of the Swansea goal on occasions.

But on the hour they were very nearly caught out at the other end when Dyer slipped the ball through to sub Bauza, with Lonergan pulling off a great save to block the close range shot.

Sadly the keeper could do nothing to prevent the third goal arriving after 69 minutes.

Dyer tricked his way between Nolan and Wallace on the right and then squared the ball for Bauza to sweep home from six yards.

Lonergan was the saviour 10 minutes later when he stuck out a hand to turn away a shot by Angel Rangel when he had wriggled through unchecked.

But with two minutes remaining defender Tate got the ball out on the left and curled a beauty of a shot beyond the reach of Lonergan into the far corner.

In the final minute Parkin played the ball through for Brown to reduce the arrears, but it was far too little far too late to make amends for a miserable performance in South Wales.

Boss Irvine made just one change to his starting line-up as Preston made the long trip to Swansea.

As expected the North End boss recalled Barry Nicholson in midfield in place of the suspended Chris Sedgwick for a game viewed by many as potentially one of the most difficult away fixtures of the season.

Swansea, fresh from their FA Cup heroics at Portsmouth at the weekend, were on a run of 12 games unbeaten in all competitions, including 10 in the Championship.

But having gone to Wolves in similar circumstances recently and won, Irvine and his men travelled to South Wales in confident mood, especially after enjoying a 10-day rest following their derby victory over Burnley.

Karl Hawley returned to the bench in place of top scorer Neil Mellor who had surgery to repair a hernia earlier in the day.

Swans manager Roberto Martinez made two changes to the side which won 2-0 at Fratton Park, bringing back keeper Dorus De Vries and midfielder Mark Gower in place of Dimi Konstantopoulus and Joe Allen.

Swansea City: De Vries, Rangel, Williams, Monk, Tate, Britton, Pratley, Gower, Gomez, Scotland, Dyer.

Substitutes: Orlandi, Tudur-Jones, Pintado, Serran, Bauza.

Preston North End: Lonergan, Jones, Mawene, St Ledger, Davidson, Nicholson, Chaplow, McKenna, Wallace, Parkin, Elliott.

Substitutes: C Neal, Hawley, Brown, Whaley, Nolan.

Referee: Phil Gibbs (West Midlands)