Preston North End boss pleased with victory over Queens Park Rangers after 'flat' opening spell

The Lilywhites weren’t at their best for the first half-hour, PNE manager Lowe of the view that was a knock-on after the high of beating Blackpool in the derby four days earlier.

Emil Riis gave them the lead in the 43rd minute, with Cameron Archer scoring early in the second half. Andre Gray scored a consolation goal from the penalty spot for QPR in stoppage-time.

Lowe said: “It’s back-to-back wins which I’m pleased with. There were large parts of the game which I wasn’t pleased with but on the other hand we created some fantastic chances and possibly could have scored more than two.

"On the flip side of that, QPR had a couple of chances and Daniel Iversen made a couple of saves.

"The first 20 or 30 minutes were flat, I didn’t know what I was watching really. We kept giving the ball away and what I didn’t want to happen was give QPR an opportunity to score.

"It was a bit after the Lord Mayor’s show after Tuesday, the outputs weren’t as great as I would liked. But we found a way which is good.

"I’ll give the lads a couple of days rest now and then we’ll go again ready for Millwall on Friday.”

Riis had to limp off just after giving North End the lead and will have a scan on a hamstring injury.

He was replaced by Sean Maguire who linked-up well with Archer during the second half.

Lowe said: "Scoring just before half-time and then after half-time was good.

"During half-time we gave them a wake-up call and told the lads not to wait for things to happen, get in their faces and get about them.

"We certainly did that second-half and got the second goal.

"I’m pleased for Emil that he scored, although someone has put it down to an own goal – he definitely touched it against their lad and it was going on target, so it’s his goal.

"He will definitely claim it and I’m pleased for him with the hard work he’s been putting in.

"Emil says he felt something in his hamstring so he’ll go and get a scan tomorrow. Hopefully it is not too bad but when he went down he hadn’t been able to run it off.

"We got him off the pitch, maybe he wanted to stay on to see how it was but we didn’t want to take a risk.”

Archer’s goal, the seventh of his loan spell from Aston Villa, saw him cut inside on to his left foot from Daniel Johnson’s pass and finish well.

Lowe said: "That is what Cam does, he takes you into areas where he can chop on to his left foot – he’s got that touch and burst of pace.

"I think it took a bit of a ricochet on it’s way into the roof of the net.

"He could possibly have had a hat-trick today, he had some good chances.”

PNE player ratings from victory over Queens Park Rangers