Alex Neil focuses on the positives after Preston North End's crazy 3-3 draw with Aston Villa

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The Lilywhites stormed back from 2-0 down at half-time to lead 3-2 against the 10-man hosts with time almost up.

A late Yannick Bolasie leveller then wasn’t the end of the drama with PNE ‘keeper Chris Maxwell saving a penalty from Glenn Whelan in the game’s final act.

“We’ve done this quite a few times this year,” said Neil, whose side remained bottom of the Championship table despite picking up their first point on the road this season.

“We were 2-0 down at Sheffield United and got it back to 2-2 and it looked like we were going to win only for us to get hit with a sucker punch.

“What we’ve got to do is manage games better.

“That comes with experience, that comes with knowhow, that comes with being in that position many times before.

“We are a young team, we know that, but we’re more than capable of making better decisions and seeing the game out.

“What we’ve got to do coming to a difficult venue like this is take all the positives from that second half.

“At half-time if you’d have offered me 3-3 I would have snapped your hand off.”

The PNE boss was full of praise for his side’s battling qualities at Villa Park given their difficult start to the season.

“When you’re 2-0 down at a big place like Villa and their fans are right behind them it’s easy to give up,” said Neil.

“But we’ve never done that this year.

“In every single game, whether we’ve played good, bad or indifferent we’ve fought right to the very end and we’ve done it again here.”