Preston North End manager has no doubt that Emil Riis was the scorer of the opening goal against Queens Park Rangers

Riis saw his 43rd minute opener in the 2-1 victory at Deepdale given as a Jimmy Dunne own goal.

His flick from an Andrew Hughes did come off Dunne but PNE manager Lowe thought it was on target to start with and so should go down as Riis’ 18th goal of the season.

The Danish striker pulled up as he started to celebrate the goal, complaining of soreness in the hamstring, with that proving to be his last contribution to the action before giving way to Sean Maguire.

Lowe told the Lancashire Post: “We will give Emil the goal but let’s just hope he’s not on a goal bonus!

"It was a great run across the defender, a great touch and a great cross from Hughesy.

"We had worked on getting in positions to cross like that in training on Friday and it showed what can be achieved.

"For me, that was Emil’s goal. We’ll wait and see what the scan shows with the injury.”

Cameron Archer made it 2-0 early in the second half with the seventh goal of his PNE loan spell, before Andre Gray netted a consolation from the penalty spot in stoppage-time.

Lowe conceded his side had been way off their best in the opening half-hour, suggesting that had been a result of the come down after the highs of the derby win over Blackpool.

The second-half performance was much better in a contest which became very open but ultimately delivered a third home victory on the spin.

"It was a little bit lethargic to start with,” said Lowe.

"I tried to get across to the lads that the reason they were running harder and looking a bit tired was down to the fact they were giving the ball away a lot and having to chase it.

"They are good lads and on the same page, so when we spoke to them at half-time they understood it.

"I thought in the second half we should have scored more goals, if we had gone and got three, four or even five, that would have been great.

"QPR had chances to score two or three. In the end it was 2-1 and I thought Daniel Iversen deserved a clean sheet because of how good his performance was. Unfortunately we conceded the penalty.”

Ali McCann delighted with two home wins in a week for PNE