Alex Neil felt his Preston team should have won at Carrow Road, had his players shown the same clinical edge as Teemu Pukki.

The former Canaries boss saw Lukas Nmecha and Louis Moult thwarted by Tim Krul and Callum Robinson rattle the City crossbar before Pukki's fine finish edged the hosts in front in the 80th minute.

Neil then watched one of his former players, Alex Tettey, make sure of the win with a thumping strike in the 87th minute to seal a 2-0 win.

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'We kept them quiet for long spells and probably had three of the best opportunities of the game before they scored,' said the Scot.

'There was opportunities there where we could have took the lead but we always felt that the first goal was the deciding factor because it was such a tight match, but I thought we were okay at best.

'The first goal is the one that loses us the game. The second one from Alex, obviously he hits it really well but I'm really disappointed with the first one. The lad comes back inside, and we should never let people back inside and in that instance we did and that's what's cost us the game.'

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The man who led Norwich to Wembley play-off final glory in 2015 felt he set his team up correctly.

'The one thing I will look at is the part that I've played in tonight because first half, we adopted a different approach with two up front to frustrate them and it worked to a point but it took away from our game,' Neil continued, speaking to iFollowPNE.

In the second half, I thought we were the better team until they scored which is disappointing so that is something that I'll have a look at from myself. I'm really frustrated because we had our chance to get that first goal.

'I'm usually not a big fan of my team playing that way (with two strikers) but it was a bit of a means to an end because in doing that we've still created the best chance but the fact is that we didn't put away our chances.

'I thought for the first 30 minutes of the second half we were on top and we bossed the game in their half, but the game changed when the goal went in, they get a lift and then Alex Tettey smashes one in from 30 yards.'