Alan Irvine's Preston North End side maintained their unbeaten pre-season record with a fine 2-1 victory over Tony Pulis' Stoke City.

The Lilywhites survived an early scare when Andy Lonergan saved a Liam Lawrence penalty to go in at the break with a comfortable 2-0 lead thanks to a brace of goals from Neil Mellor.

Mellor pounced in the 33rd minute of the match when Thomas Sorenson flapped at a Ross Wallace cross, Mellor slotting home into an empty net, then one minute before the break Mellor doubled his and North End's tallly when he somehow dug out a shot when it looked like he was surrounded by Stoke City markers.

The Lilywhites could have been further ahead at the break, they were denied two strong penalty shouts when Mellor was upended in the box and Sean St. Ledger received a push to the back.

Stoke pushed to get back into the game in the second period but only began to cause a threat when Rory Delap and his famously long throw caused a few problems in the PNE defence. In fact it was from a Delap throw that Stoke grabbed a glimmer of hope, Delap's first real long one, Richard Cresswell clambering through a crowd of players to head home ten minutes before the end.

But North End held on and they now look to Tuesday night's visit of Wigan Athletic hoping to keep their unbeaten run going and claim a second Premiership scalp within the space of a week.

There were few surprises for the 3,000 strong crowd that had turned up for the fixture, Dean Whitehead's Stoke City debut giving the Stoke fans something new to look at, but it was the tried and trusted for Alan Irvine with Mellor and Parkin reunited in attack, Darren Carter and Richard Chaplow auditioning very well for the vacancy created by the departed Paul McKenna.

Sean St. Ledger partnered Liam Chilvers in central defence and the Republic of Ireland international was at the heart of the first real incident in the game when Dave Kitson ran on to a James Beattie through ball, cut inside and fell dramatically to the ground after making contact with St. Ledger's trailing leg.

Liam Lawrence stepped up to take the spot-kick but Andy Lonergan pulled out a top-drawer save to deny the Stoke midfielder to keep the scores level at 0-0.

Jon Parkin had received a good reception from both sets of fans but in the 18th minute the Stoke fans were more than happy to see The Beast drill a volley into the sky after Darren Carter had played a clever ball across the face of goal. Chris Sedgwick mistimed a volley from a similar position on 26 minutes but the longer the first half went on the more North End looked dangerous.

Mellor and Parkin combined to good effect in the first half and Mellor almost opened the scoring when Parkin played the ball into his path on 32 minutes, Sorenson somehow tipping the ball over the bar. One minute later though and Mellor made no mistake, Wallace and Carter combined on the right from a short corner and Sorenson flapped at the cross with Sean St. Ledger close by, the ball came through to Mellor and he had no problem slotting home to open the scoring.

North End survived another scare when debutant Dean Whitehead somehow contrived to plant the ball over the crossbar from only five yards out. The former Sunderland man had time and space after Ryan Shawcross had powered a header into his path.

At the other end the Lilywhites had two very good penalty shouts. If it had been a Championship fixture then there might have been a little more controversy about the referee denying them. Mellor was tipped up just inside the box after a good run, the referee's opinion was that it was outside the box and Wallace saw his free-kick well saved. Moments later and Shawcross clearly shoved Sean St. Ledger in the back in a harmless looking position but again the referee said no.

Preston grabbed a deserved second just before the break. Neil Mellor looked to have very little on when surrounded by three Stoke City defenders, but he showed real grint and determination when he took the ball between two of them before squeezing a shot past the third and beyond the reach of Sorenson into the Stoke net.

The Lilywhites made one change at the break with Andy Lonergan replaced by Wayne Henderson in goal. The Irish keeper making a long awaited return to first team action at Deepdale.

The Irish keeper made an immediate impression making two good blocks as Stoke came out with Tony Pulis' voice probably ringing in their ears. Henderson denied Kitson from the angle and then Etherington from point-blank range to get straight back into the thick of things. Henderson again denied Etherington in the 50th minute to make it a hat-trick of good saves.

A flurry of substitutions arrived on the hour mark with both teams making full use of their benches. The most notable for PNE was the return to action of Stephen Elliott who came back from a spell of tendonitis to get back amongst the action. Elliott had half a chance in the 66th minute when he got his newly shaven head to a Ross Wallace cross from the left.

Elliott had another sight of goal when he exchanged passes with Chris Brown on the halfway line, Elliott raced towards goal and with no other options on he let fly with a right-footed effort that Sorenson was always well behind.

Inspired by his fellow countryman, Eddie Nolan cut in from the left flank and hit a shot from the edge of the box that Sorenson saved well.

However at the other end of the field Stoke gave North End some late jitters when Rory Delap launced a throw-in from the right and Richard Cresswell powered through the crowd to nod the ball home. It's a goal that has been scored by Stoke many times before and it probably won't be the last time we see a goal from that source.

Delap launced a few more efforts towards goal but North End's defence had learnt its lesson and Cresswell almost spoiled things with a late, late equaliser, but he curled his effort well wide when clean through in the second minute of injury time.

Seconds later and the full-time whistle was blown and the North End crowd were more than appreciative of the Lilywhites efforts. It was an encouraging display, one which showed that there might just be life at Deepdale post-McKenna. Plenty to build on for the new campaign and plenty to be positive about as Alan Irvine builds for August 8th.

PNE: Lonergan (Henderson 45) , Jones (Hart 60), St. Ledger (Trotman 60), Chilvers, Davidson (Nolan 60), Sedgwick (Nicholson 65), Carter, Chaplow, Wallace (Hawley 77), Parkin (Brown 65), Mellor (Elliott 65).
Stoke: Sorenson, Griffin (Dickinson 72), Cort (Sonko 63), Higginbotham (Cresswell 63), Shawcross, Lawrence (Tonge 67), Whelan (Diao 58), Whitehead (Delap 58), Etherington (Pugh 58), Beattie, Kitson (Shetton 63). Unused Sub: Simonsen
Attendance: 3,121