Alex Neil persisted with his one up top lone frontman. This time he played Maguire who had one of his better games in a while although he still failed to find the back of the net.
Harrop and Barkhuizen filled the wide spaces whilst Johnson played behind the lone frontman. It worked well in the first half. North End were dominant. Maguire hit the post and Preston were on top.
The Whites took the lead after a penalty was awarded for a foul in the box. Johnson conveted and it appeared that Preston needed to maintain their play in the second period to pick up three points.
The game changed in the second half especially with the introduction of subsitutes. Neil failed to react and when he did he panicked. Hall equalised just after the hour.
Preston were then gifted a lifeline when Cameron was sent off for a second bookable offence. He can have no complaints but still the visitors looked the better side.
Both of Preston's full backs looked poor. Manning gave the visitors the lead before Eze curled in a shot fromt he edge of the box. Preston had disnitegrated.
In fairness Preston have not played well for some time now. The only recent victory was a struggle against Hull. North End are clinging on to sixth spot but in reality they will soon find themselves out of the play off places given the fixtures coming up if an immediate improvement is not see.
Neil is coming under pressure a little from the fans for the first time since the start of last season. He will need to extract something from his side by way of an improvement if he is to avoid further pressure from the fans.