Talking points: Aston Villa and Leicester loanees shine as Preston North End come good in the end

Emil Riis scored the opening goal of the game near the end of the first half and Cameron Archer doubled North End’s lead not long into the second half.

Andre Gray struck from the spot with just seconds to go for the R’s.

Here are four talking points from the game.

1. Star loanees.

Loan players shone at both ends of the pitch on Saturday, Cameron Archer impressed again leading the line as a dangerous threat, scoring once which could have easily been two or three.

Meanwhile at the other end Daniel Iversen proved once again why he’s in the reckoning to be a full international with Denmark with some superb stops.

Archer was exciting to watch and you can see the raw quality that he posseses and going it alone mostly to score his goal, he can create things out of very little.

At the other end is a man with no frills or fanciness, just a goalkeeper doing his job. A job he does exceptionally well. The pair will be extremely hard to replace next season if PNE cannot find a way to bring them back to Lancashire.

2. Slow start.

North End did not begin the game against QPR well, in fact they were lucky to be level when they actually took the lead. That was however thanks to the aforementioned Iversen.

It looked like a knock-on effect from the adrenaline-fuelled victory over Blackpool under the lights, a Saturday afternoon against QPR just could not compare.

On another day they may have found themselves with a mountain to climb but a bit of quality saw through as they began to come into the game as Riis netted his 18th of the season.

3. Finishing strong.

PNE have scored just four first half goals under Ryan Lowe, two of them coming this week.

It is then good news that they do finish games strongly.

Particularly under Lowe they have the ability to work their way into the game, whether that is by working out the opposition or just by pulling their finger out, they do generally seem to find a way to do it.

By the end of Saturday’s game, there could really only be one winner as PNE bossed proceedings from the interval onwards.

That isn’t to say that there were not chances for Mark Warburton’s men, because there were. It descended into a basketball game at one point, with good chances at both ends swiftly following on from each other.

This North End side are never out of a game.

4. Back to back wins.

Putting together a run of results this season has been PNE’s weakness, that is why they are not troubling either end of the table.

They don’t go on bad enough runs to go down and likewise to challenge for promotion.

What they have done is follow up a mammoth display against Blackpool with a win over a play-off chasing side.

They were good value for it, too. That is two wins in a week now and you cannot say fairer than that. Both home wins, too, with Millwall coming to Deepdale on Friday to give the Lilywhites to extend their good run.