PNE's prolific striking pairing of Chris Brown and Neil Mellor wrote their names into derby day folklore as they fired the bullets that secured a fantastic comeback victory for the Lilywhites at Bloomfield Road.

Trailing for much of the first half to Adam Hammill's quality early strike for Blackpool, Brown found the target twice either side of a goal from Mellor as the fans' favourites carried on from where they left off at Norwich last weekend.

It came, too, off the back of manager Alan Irvine's bold decision to make key changes throughout, with Sean St. Ledger and Wayne Brown preferred at centre half - Youl Mawene missing out for the first time this season - and Billy Jones reverting to right back as Richard Chaplow returned to central midfield to produce a dominant performance.

The re-jigged side started brightly, and within two minutes Neil Mellor had already fired a warning shot narrowly over the bar after meeting Ross Wallace's low cross on the turn.

That, however, coupled with a bright start for the Lilywhites, didn't correlate with what was to come. Adam Hammill forced Andy Lonergan into a low block at his near post, and though he couldn't hold on with Gary Taylor-Fletcher ready to pounce, Lonergan was agile and alert as he kept out a near certain opener.

It only served to delay the sadly inevitable, though. Taylor-Fletcher this time returned the compliment to Hammill with a slipped pass away to the right, and the midfield man took just a shimmy to create a bit of space outside his marker, Callum Davidson, and hurled an unstoppable rocket into the top right hand corner of the goal he was aiming for, just ten minutes gone.

The early entertainment value of the outing was higher than either of the corresponding fixtures last season, with Chris Sedgwick and Keith Southern trading shots narrowly wide of target as the game took off at considerable pace.

Inevitably it wasn't to last, with Billy Jones' mazy dribble and low shot, fumbled round the post by Rachubka, dragging the game back out of a lull.

North End could have gone into the break level but found their path to goal blocked by a variety of sources, Rob Edwards' brave block tackle on Chris Brown denying the striker at the near post after a good low cross from Mellor who had taken up a wide right position.

Supplying quality crosses proved so successful to PNE in the opening stages of the campaign, and once again it appeared to be a policy that bore fruit as the away side relentlessly hared forward in search of a leveller straight after the re-start.

Mellor fired a warning shot just wide of the post with seven second half minutes amassed after breaking clear, but it was a ball from the wing that brought Preston level.

Wallace was given enough room within which to manoeuvre and engineer a cross, and his perfect placement meant that Chris Brown was given a perfectly inviting chance to head home at the near post from just six yards out.

The game had returned to a typical derby tussle mode following the leveller, but genuine passing quality gave North End a lead with 22 minutes remaining.

A simple explanation of the goal is that it came from another cross, this time Davidson the provider on the left and Mellor meeting it powerfully with his head at the back post, but that would be doing a dis-service to Wayne Brown, whose crunching challenge deep in PNE territory won possession to start the move, which was then sparked by Wallace's darting run into a more dangerous area.

The away fans were in delerium, and the home fans started to lose belief as their jeers for their own charges grew, and Preston took full advantage as confidence drained away from the men in tangerine.

Less than ten minutes after going in front, their cushion was doubled as the home defence was sliced apart by some simple passing movement - again stemming from a wide position.

With Mellor evading an illegal challenge from substitute Stephen McPhee on the flank, referee Mike Dean played a good advantage, allowing the striker to get round the back of the defence and switch possession to Wallace on the opposite wing. His low square ball was missed by Chaplow, but Chris Brown was there, unmarked in the centre, to smash the ball into an unguarded net after taking a steadying touch.

That proved more than sufficient as the home side ran out of ideas going forward - the back four staying resolute as they had been for so much of the game.

The final few minutes were all about enjoying the moment, with PNE's 1,700 devoted supporters finding full voice in a thoroughly enjoyable finale to a game that had started in such ominous fashion.

PNE: Lonergan, Jones, St. Ledger, W Brown, Davidson, Sedgwick, McKenna (capt), Chaplow, Wallace, C Brown, Mellor (sub Elliott 88). Subs not used: C Neal, Mawene, Nicholson, Parkin.

Blackpool: Rachubka, Southern (sub McPhee 74), Evatt, Hammill. Taylor-Fletcher (sub Hendrie 74), Jorgensen, Camara, Edwards, Barker, Gow (sub Kabba 60), Burgess. Subs not used: Broomes, McPhee, Fox, Kabba, Hendrie.