Preston boss Alex Neil keen to see transfer window pass without incident

Having secured the striker he desperately wanted in the shape of Emil Riis who made his debut in yesterday’s 4-2 win at Brentford, the next task for Neil is keeping key players out of the grasp of others.

Daniel Johnson and Ben Davies are the two to have attracted interest in the last few weeks.

Rangers enquired about Johnson – again absent through with a groin injury yesterday – last month but were knocked back.

If they still want their man, the Ibrox outfit only have until 11pm tonight.

Davies has been subject of a bid from Bournemouth and Sheffield United enquired.

A window for trading domestically for both the ELF and Premier League extends until October 16.

In terms of any outgoings, Neil said: “I don’t expect anything at the moment.

“You never say never in football but what I do envisage is that if anyone does happen to leave – I think at the moment it’s a 99% chance it won’t happen – we would have to replace.”

Neil watched in delight as North End staged a superb comeback at Brentford.

Trailing 2-0 at half-time to two Ivan Toney goals, his side roared back with four goals in 18 second-half minutes.

Scott Sinclair halved the deficit and then equalised, Brad Potts put PNE into the lead and Sean Maguire scored the fourth goal.

For the last 12 minutes, Riis was introduced off the bench for his Preston debut after signing from Danish club Randers for £1.2m.

Neil said: “We have looked at a lot of strikers, I’m not going to lie. The last time I checked we had looked at something like 72 strikers.

“It is not easy for us to find guys because we have a limited amount of money to spend.

“You look at Ivan Toney scored twice against us, he was top scorer in League One and went for £10m.

“We aren’t getting anywhere near that money so we have to be creative in what we are trying to do.

“We’ve always shopped domestically and I made it clear to Peter (Ridsdale) and the club that we needed to broaden our horizons to give us another chance of finding someone who fits the bill.

“Emil has come in and has got the attributes which we want a player to have.

“He’s only 22, he’s quick and dynamic which is unusual for a big lad.

“We’ve got work to do with him when it comes to tightening up his feet when bringing the ball in.

“He’s big and strong, he will give us a different option.”