Preston North End boss Alex Neil has no complaints over result after West Bromwich Albion defeat

Goals from Hal Robson-Kanu, six minutes in, and Jake Livermore, a minute before the break, were enough to sink PNE, who ended the game a man light after Darnell Fisher was given a straight red card.

Preston failed to register a shot on target in the game, with the Baggies looking every bit the league leaders that they are, but Neil didn't think his side played that badly.

He said: "I’m not our biggest critic, I don't think we played poorly tonight.

"I thought we moved the ball okay, the biggest difference is if you look at their front four, they’re really threatening.

"They looked threatening the whole game. In transition, the two goals, we give the first ball away at the half way line, the second ball we give away at the edge of their box and within two or three passes with good, quality movement and power; they’re in good positions and are a real threat to score."

Neil felt his side should have dealt better with Albion's forward line, Callum Robinson, Filip Krovinovic, Matheus Pereira and Hal Robson-Kanu started the game, with Matt Phillips, Kamil Grosicki and Charlie Austin all coming off the bench.

The PNE boss praised their quality and felt there isn't many in the league who could match that firepower.

"My biggest disappointment is the cheapness of the goals. The first goal Callum takes it inside and plays a lofted ball, we’ve got two defenders dealing with one striker, he takes it in, brushes him off and gets a goal.

"To get anything coming to a difficult venue like this with a team that is top of the league and has the quality that they’ve got, to concede the goals we did, you really don’t give yourself a chance to get a result from the game.

"There are two things: we’ve got to deal with it better as individuals. We’re two v one, anywhere on the pitch if you’re two v one, you should get the better of that one individual. That’s quite clear cut. We don’t.

"What you’ve got to do also is you’ve got to give credit to the quality that they do possess in the final third.

"As a front four, I'm not sure there will be many better in the league, then to add to that they’ve got Matt Phillips to once on and Matt Phillips to come on.

"They’re a good side, there’s no doubt about that, that’s why they’re top of the league.

"We were here last year, we were soundly beaten, convincingly. I thought tonight they deserved to win the game, there’s certainly no doubt about that, but there were aspects in our play that were okay."