Preston claimed all three points on Wednesday night at Deepdale as they ran out 4-3 winners over Brentford.

Goals from Alan Browne, Callum Robinson and Tom Barkhuizen all within the opening 23 minutes sent the home side well on their way to victory, but a Sergi Canos goal made it 3-1 at half-time.

Ollie Watkins and Neal Maupay both drew goals back for their team either side of another Callum Robinson strike to set up a nervy finish.

Preston came into the game looking to extend their unbeaten run to four games, whereas Brentford searched for their first away victory of the season.

The Bees controlled the ball in the early stages of the game, but North End took the lead against the run of play within just five minutes. A Callum Robinson deflected effort fell into the path of Alan Browne who controlled well before squeezing the ball past Daniel Bentley in the Brentford net.

Alex Neil’s men then doubled their advantage shortly after the opener following some good play by Browne and Darnell Fisher down the right-hand side. The ball was fed into Robinson’s feet and the Irishman did well to take the ball in his stride and fire home from the edge of the box.

Things then got even better for the Whites on 23 minutes when they were awarded an indirect free-kick inside the Brentford penalty area. The ball was laid into the path of Lukas Nmecha and the striker’s effort struck Barkhuizen on its route to goal, deflecting past Bentley and into the net.

Preston were oozing with confidence at that point, coming close again straight from kick-off but Nmecha’s effort was kept out.

Brentford needed to pick themselves up if they were to get anything from this position and a piece of brilliance from Sergi Canos handed them that lifeline. The former Liverpool man cut in from the left-hand side before unleashing a powerful effort into Chris Maxwell’s top left-hand corner.

The Bees ended the half on top as they camped on the edge of the home box, but Preston kept them out and went into the break 3-1 up.

After a first-half full of goals, the start of the second suggested a similar forty-five was to come. Within the first two minutes, Chris Maxwell had to keep out two Brentford efforts before Bentley was called into action at the other end.

Maxwell then had more questions asked of him on 55 minutes, but he was this time beaten by Ollie Watkins. Darnell Fisher gave away a cheap corner which the visitors took full advantage of as Watkins beat the ‘keeper at his near post to make the score 3-2.

Brentford looked like they were all set to push on for an equaliser with Thomas Frank set to make two substitutions, but they suffered a setback when Preston restored the two-goal advantage on 69 minutes. Daniel Johnson somehow snuck the ball through a small gap to find Callum Robinson who scored his second of the game to make it 4-2.

North End then seemed relatively comfortable but were again pegged back in the 85th minute. A corner was flicked on by Henrik Dalsgaard and the ball fell to the feet of Championship leading scorer Neal Maupay who put the game on a knife edge for the closing stages.

Brentford did push for an equaliser in the last moments of the game, but Preston held on for their third victory of the season which pushed them up to 19th.

After the match, manager Alex Neil said: “We’ve had two wins and two draws in the last four games.

“We now have two games coming up that are a really good opportunity for us to get more points on the board and that’s what we will be looking to do.”