The Lilywhites were made to work hard to for their victory, which came courtesy of defender Patrick Bauer's 14th minute goal.

Speaking after the game, Preston boss Frankie McAvoy said: “I'm delighted, I wish it could have been a little bit easier. We had plenty of opportunities and chances to make it a bit easier for ourselves.

“I'd asked them to create more goalscoring opportunities and to be more clinical in the final third - we worked hard. I think this system is one that suits us best and we created a lot of goalscoring opportunities.

“1-0 is always a difficult scoreline, precarious, and they keep going until the end. I knew they would always keep coming. I said to the boys if we got the second goal it would make it easier for us, I thought with the changes we made we got opportunities from that.

“The only disappointing part for me is that it was 1-0, if I'm going to be critical. But at the end of the day it is the first points on the board for us and I'm delighted for everyone.”

He added: “Like the other night (a loss to Huddersfield Town), I don't think 1-0 told the full story. What we've got to do is make this place a difficult place for anybody to come to and be difficult to play against.

“We need to make sure we're more clinical but that's the hard part, scoring goals is difficult.

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