Performance at Norwich was a huge improvement: Preston fan John Roper was disappointed to see his team only pick up a point at Carrow Road

Twice in the lead in this game only to have victory snatched away with just five minutes of normal time remaining.

This was a performance reminiscent of the early days of Alex Neil’s reign with North End pressing high and trying to play attacking football when they were in possession.

In the lead through a Scott Sinclair penalty, we were comfortable for the first half an hour of the game. Unfortunately we conceded a poor goal just after the half hour mark but regained the lead three minutes from the break through the most unlikely of scorers in Darnell Fisher.

A more even second half but North End still had their fair share of chances only to see the three points turn into only one late on in the game.

Alex Neil made five changes to the side that started on Tuesday evening with Sean Maguire taking the central striker’s role in the familiar 4-2-3-1 formation.

North End started very brightly taking the game to the Canaries right from the moment Alan Browne kicked off.

The home side looked slightly shaky at the back and North End had plenty of the ball before taking the lead in the 14th minute.

Ben Davies was pushed in the back in the box as a corner from the right came over and Scott Sinclair calmly stepped up to give North End the lead from the spot.

We continued to dominate almost up to the half hour mark when the home side started applying some pressure to the North End defence, Norwich equalised after 31 minutes when a Pukki header sneaked inside the near post with what looked like a fumble from Declan Rudd in the North End goal.

It would have been easy for North End to roll over but after an excellent move, the visitors regained the lead in the 42nd minute when Darnell Fisher smashed home after good work by Ryan Ledson and Sinclair. It was no more than we deserved after an excellent first half display by the boys.

No changes at half-time for both teams and it was the home side who wanted to take the game to North End but we still kept chasing hard and tried to make it as difficult as we could for Daniel Farke’s men.

Make no mistake, Norwich are a good side and we had to keep our concentration particularly at the back as the home side tried to build up the pressure in the second period.

As the game wore on tired legs started to play a part and North End brought on Storey, Hughes and Potts for the tiring Browne, Davies and Rafferty. When we got in the Norwich box we just couldn’t get that third goal which would surely have won us the game.

With five minutes minutes to go, Norwich got the equaliser through a ball that wasn’t cleared and a bit of sloppy defending. In time added on, Rudd made an excellent save from Pukki as Norwich looked for the winner but North End held out for the six additional minutes to earn an excellent point down in Norfolk.

A bit of a coupon buster in some respects but a hugely improved performance from North End against one of the teams strongly fancied to return to the Premier League at the first attempt.

There were many good solid displays from the boys in white but I have to say that I though Ledson was outstanding in the centre of the park and he probably had his best game in a North End shirt.

In fact, he and Ben Pearson could make quite a formidable holding pair in this division but with Ledson always looking to join in with the attack at every opportunity.

The busy start to the campaign shows no signs of easing anytime soon as we face Brighton on Wednesday evening in the Carabao Cup third round followed by the visit of Stoke City to Deepdale next Saturday in the league.

Certainly on this performance that first league win cannot be far away and maybe Manchester United in round four of the Carabao Cup.