Preston extended their unbeaten run in the Sky Bet Championship to seven matches following a 0-0 draw away at Stoke.
Both sides had chances to score in a hard-fought encounter, but they ultimately cancelled each other out as the spoils were shared.
The result sees play-off hopefuls Preston, whose manager Paul Heckingbottom was serving the final match in his three-game touchline ban, remain in fifth place.
Stoke, meanwhile, have dropped to 10th spot having now won only one of their last six league games.
The visitors started firmly on the front front and registered their first shot within a matter of seconds, with Harrison Armstrong’s effort going over the crossbar.
They came even closer to opening the scoring in the seventh minute, when Thierry Small’s close-range shot was smothered by the onrushing Viktor Johansson after the ball was worked well from right to left.
Down at the other end, Bosun Lawal’s long throw-in on the half-hour mark was allowed to bounce and went all the way to the far post, where Sorba Thomas could only prod his attempt from a tight angle into the side netting.
Johansson was called into action again for the hosts towards the end of the first half, getting down well to hold Small’s low, curling effort as the teams went into the break on level terms.
The Swede had to be alert once more early in the second half when Jordan Storey headed Ben Whiteman’s cross from a free-kick goalwards.
Moments later, Stoke forward Divin Mubama had a great opportunity to break the deadlock but he could only find the side netting with his shot having received a pass from Lawal and stole a march on marker Odeluga Offiah.
Lawal got in behind the away defence following a quickly taken free-kick just after the hour mark, but Small put in a brilliant last-ditch challenge and sent the ball out for a corner.
And with the home side starting to build up some momentum, substitute Ben Gibson saw his effort from the corner of the box deflect over the crossbar.
Further chances came and went at either end, with Thomas’ curling attempt from the edge of the area well saved by Daniel Iversen and Whiteman forcing Johansson into a good stop.
However, a goal proved to be elusive and the teams had to settle for a point apiece.
The managers
Stoke’s Mark Robins:
“We ended up getting a point, but it could have and should have been a lot more.
“We looked a threat from set plays, we looked pretty good in terms of the back to the front, but you’re still looking for little bit quicker movement.
“In the last three games, we’ve won one, lost one and drawn one now, and we’re looking for more.
“But 34 points, if we can actually replicate or do a little bit better than that in the second half of the season it could be good, which we’re going to have to do because we’ve lost ground.”
Preston assistant manager Stuart McCall:
“We’ve lost the [joint] second least amount of games, apart from Coventry.
“But we had a good start to last season, for the first half of it, and then we tailed off and we had too many draws.
“They’re a resolute bunch. We don’t go away to sit in and defend. We want to be on the front foot, we want to be more attack-minded and we’ve had our creative spark going forward missing today, so it was always going to be tough.
“But the lads are doing far better than they did last season, that’s for sure.”
