No classic but North End get the job done: Preston fan John Smith has his say on the 2-1 win over Luton Town

The Hatters, who were making their first visit to Deepdale since November 2006, had also lost on their last seven outings here and an eighth successive one looked very likely when Paul Gallagher followed in the rebound of his penalty to fire us in front after just five minutes.

However, we failed to build on this early advantage despite having a lot of possession.I think there was something dubious about the penalty award which brought Luton level just before the break as our failure to penetrate Luton’s well organised defence came back to haunt us just before the break .

The ever increasing high quality of the Championship was emphasised by the fact that the newly-promoted visitors were very difficult to break down and these days any win in this league has to be earned as there are no “gimmies” at this level of football.

Boss Alex Neil, as usual, tinkered with his formation making use of all his three substitutions around the hour mark in an effort to make a breakthrough.

It was one of those replacements in the shape of Jayden Stockley who finally broke Luton’s stubborn defensive resistance five minutes from time when he prodded home from close range to score the winning goal against the club he spent time on loan at four years ago

.Prior to this Declan Rudd had made an amazing one on one save following a rare breakaway attack from Luton and on another day we could have been facing a different outcome.

Our manager frequently points out football results are down to fine margins and thankfully they went our way on Saturday in a game which wont be remembered as a classic .