Preston continued their great home form with a 2-0 win over play-off certainties Sheffield United.
Pawel Abbott had a great early chance when a throughball from Erik Skora fell to found him and, after his first effort was blocked by Phil Jagielka, Abbott somehow managed to force Blades goalkeeper Paddy Kenny into a fine diving save.
The Polish striker had another chance soon after but fired narrowly wide.
Preston's top-scorer Richard Cresswell had to go off with a leg injury after 37 minutes and was replaced by ex-Celtic and Scotland Under-21 striker Simon Lynch.
Just before the interval Skora was brought down just outside the right corner of the box and Eddie Lewis curled the resulting free kick goalwards only for Kenny to produce another spectacular save.
Lilywhites keeper Jonathan Gould produced a diving save of his own to deny Blades captain Michael Brown from a free-kick.
Dickson Etuhu made it 1-0 to Preston in the 61st minute with his sixth goal of the season, heading in to the top corner from Graham Alexander's flag kick.
Gould made another great save from Michael Tonge before Lewis made the final score 2-0, stroking home Etuhu's cross from seven yards out with just four minutes on the clock.