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Sunday’s goalless draw with Reading was their fifth clean sheet in the last seven Championship games.

They had to rely on a late penalty miss from Royals striker Lucas Joao but it was a welcome shut-out.

PNE have tightened up at the back even though only three sides have conceded more in the division.

PNE manager Alex Neil on the touchline during the 0-0 draw with Reading at Deepdale

At one stage they had the leakiest Championship defence, Wycombe and Huddersfield now sharing that dubious honour.

Neil’s men had three clean sheets on the bounce over Christmas as they beat Bristol City, Derby and Coventry.

That run ended with a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on January 2, Forest’s winner coming from the penalty spot.

Their next league game saw them lose 2-0 at Bristol City, before they got back on an even keel by winning 1-0 at Birmingham.

Preston North End left-back Joe Rafferty challenges Reading's Sone Aluko

There was the 4-1 defeat to Wycombe in the FA Cup in the midst of them, Neil fielding a makeshift defence that day.

Neil said: “That’s five clean sheets out of the last seven league games which we’ve got to be pleased with.

“It was well documented how many goals we had been conceding and we needed to fix that, try to do better.

“What we’ve got to look at is that it doesn’t come at a cost of not scoring goals, we’ve got to find the right balance.”

The Reading shut-out was achieved despite a late change to the back four which saw Joe Rafferty play at left-back instead of Andrew Hughes.

Rafferty was drafted into the side at left-back just 30 minutes before kick-off because Hughes had a shoulder injury.

He had initially been passed fit to play with the help of a pain-killing injection but the effects wore off in the warm-up.

Rafferty took plenty of stick when he conceded the penalty but otherwise, Neil felt he had a solid game.

Hughes’ injury – sustained when he was pushed into the advertising boards late in the Birmingham game –will be monitored this week ahead of the weekend clash with Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

The clean sheet on Sunday was the Lilywhites’ ninth in the league this season.

Before this recent run, they had kept it clean against QPR, Reading, Wednesday and Middlesbrough.

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Five clean sheets in the seven Championship games is a plus for Preston North End manager Alex Neil