Alex Neil hails 'fantastic' Preston North End

North End started the first half well, creating multiple chances but they went into half time level.

Wednesday were the side that took the lead however, Jacob Murphy bursting off the right flank to slot the ball under Declan Rudd.

PNE fought back and Scott Sinclair, fresh off the bench, found the leveller with help from a Jayden Stockley flick on.

Stockley had his own goal soon after, Daniel Johnson, who like the other two hadn't started the game, finding the big man who fired low past the 'keeper from outside the area.

Brad Potts - another PNE sub - sealed the win five minutes into extra time with a cultured finish from range.

"I've said this all along and it's easy to say this now that we've won the game, but I think we've deserved more points than we've taken since we've come back," Neil said after the game.

"Our performances have merited more. Tonight it looked as if it was going to be another frustrating night. I thought we were fantastic in the first half.

"We had four or five glorious opportunities and I think on another night we could have comfortably gone in 4-0 up. They had one good chance, they hit the bar from a corner with a header.

"Then I thought in the second half we didn't get up to tempo quick enough, we still had a couple of threats but not enough.

"The goal changes the game, I didn't think they'd offered up that much in the match, the goal really disappoints us. Then we went aggressive with the subs to force the issue.

"I thought the lads that came on, all of them, made a good and big impact on the game for us. The second two finishes were fantastic to finish the game off."

The PNE boss surprised many by choosing a three at the back system for their trip to Hillsborough, Jordan Storey coming in for his first league start of 2020 with Tom Barkhuizen and Sean Maguire leading the line.

Though not afraid of using different systems, the Lilywhites only trained using their new formation for one day leading into the huge game that kept their play-off hopes alive.

Neil said: "We worked on it yesterday for this game, so we worked on it for one day.

"Since I've been here we've been really adaptable. We went to Aston Villa and played a 4-4-2 and were terrific.

"We went to Barnsley and played a 4-4-2 diamond and were great. We came to Hillsborough and played a 3-5-2 and it worked really well so we have lots of different systems.

"Our 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 whatever you want to call it has served us well but I think at times you do need to freshen it up for the players as much as anything else. Normally in our time of need we freshen the shape up."