91Èȱ¬

Preston stretched their unbeaten run to five games as goals from Paul Gallagher and Alan Browne earned a comfortable victory over Port Vale.

Joe Garner's bicycle kick was palmed away before Preston opened the scoring through Gallagher's powerful effort.

Vale were down to 10 men on 79 minutes when defender Stephane Zubar was red-carded for striking Garner in the face.

Preston then doubled their lead almost instantly, Browne running through to beat Chris Neal with a deflected shot.

Port Vale manager Rob Page told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Stoke:

"As much as I think that the sending-off was harsh, I'm disappointed at our bit of ill discipline. You've got to rise above it and not get involved.

"Somebody was going to get sent off because of the way the lad was playing. I've looked at half a dozen incidents on the analysis and, quite frankly, they're embarrassing, but I'm disappointed that we've risen to the bait.

"You're going to come up against players like that who are going to try to gain an advantage by reducing you to 10 men. And the sending-off changed the game."