North End were head and shoulders above Morecambe as they hit the Shrimps for five at Deepdale to book their place in the 2nd round of the Carling Cup.
North End romped their way to victory with four headed goals plus a neat finish for Neil Mellor in stoppage time but the game might have been a very different one.
Mark Duffy could have seen his side take the lead if his penalty expertly saved by Andrew Lonergan. Duffy stepped up after Lonergan was adjudged to have fouled Ian Craney but was thwarted in his attempts to put the visitors ahead, much to the delight of the North End stopper who parried the ball away low down to his right.
Just three minutes later Preston had the lead, though. Chris Brown was quick to quash any confusion as to whether Preston's opener was an own goal by celebrating converting from close-range.
North End's lead was doubled just before half-time through Stephen Elliott who saw his excellent performance rewarded with a goal. Elliott showed great skill and composure to force his way into the box and was unlucky not score, instead forcing a corner. Elliott found himself unmarked and had the simple task of turning in Ross Wallace's corner with the keeper rooted to the spot.
The third goal of the evening saw North End hit Morecambe on the counter attack. Ross Wallace hogged the left-hand touchline before whipping in a dangerous ball towards the penalty spot. Barry Nicholson was the most alert and found the net with a diving header into the bottom corner. 3-0 and Preston in total control.
On 69 minutes Preston had a 4-0 lead via the most unlikely of sources. Defender Neal Trotman was introduced as a substitute to replace stand-in skipper Youl Mawene but immediately made a beeline for the penalty area for the impending corner kick. The former Oldham man rose above everyone else to power his header into the top corner.
Neil Mellor came on to replace Chris Brown and rounded off North End's scoring with an excellently taken shot from the edge of the area in the 91st minute. Mellor recieved the ball from Trotman on the edge of the area, teed himself up before tucking the ball away neatly into the bottom corner past the out-stretched Roche.
With the game seemingly over, former Manchester United trainee Michael Twiss scored a consolation goal in the 3rd minute of added on time to give the travelling Morecambe supporters something to cheer about.
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