Paul Heckingbottom frustrated as Preston throw away lead at Hull

Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted being disappointed with a 2-2 draw at Hull “shows how far we’ve come but how far we’ve still got to go”.

The Lilywhites avoided relegation by a single point last season but they have been the early surprise package in this campaign and went two up inside 10 minutes through Thierry Small and Michael Smith.

Had they held on, Preston would have moved up to second in the Sky Bet Championship but they stay sixth after the in-form Oli McBurnie bagged a brace, twice converting from low Ryan Giles crosses.

“It shows how far we’ve come but how far we’ve still got to go if we want to be a serious team,” said Heckingbottom, whose side had conceded just five times in their seven previous matches.

“As well as we’ve been defending, those two moments have killed us. I’d give our defenders that situation to deal with 99 times out of a hundred and they’d get it right.

“We know it’s their threat. We’ve been fantastic at dealing with those situations and it’s been no fluke because we work hard at it, that’s why it’s so disappointing to get undone by it.”

Heckingbottom managed McBurnie at Barnsley and Sheffield United but believes the striker was gifted his two goals as he took his tally to five in his last four games and six overall for this campaign.

“Oli will score but he didn’t have to do much, Ryan got him the goals,” added Heckingbottom. “If you put the ball in the six-yard box, he’ll score.

“There’s so many positives but the big, big negative is we’ve not won the game. The fact we’re all frustrated is a good sign.”

Small struck after just three minutes after Hull failed to deal with a corner and Ivor Pandur coughing up possession to Ben Whiteman proved costly as the midfielder teed up Smith to score his first goal for Preston.

Hull were listless for much of the first 45 minutes and created nothing but a triple half-time substitution, with Regan Slater, Joe Gelhardt and Liam Millar all introduced, sparked them into life.

Having been booed off at half-time, McBurnie’s double was almost added to at the death by John Lundstram, whose 25-yard piledriver was clawed away by Daniel Iversen at full stretch.

“We made too many mistakes,” said Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic of their first-half display.

“We struggled until half-time with basic things (such as) passing, we lost the ball very easily, we didn’t do anything, especially in duels, they were much stronger than us.

“(The message at half-time was) to never surrender because when you are behind 2-0, one goal will change everything – their reaction was perfect.

“We are very happy because we have Oli. I have said a couple of times he is a fighter and truly a leader.”