Jamie Hoyland's North End came from behind to defeat their local rivals Burnley, thanks to two second half Ryan McGreevy goals, to remain top of the Youth Alliance North West Conference, despite missing a penalty at Springfields.

It didn't all go the way of the Lilywhites, who were behind at the interval, despite having an opportunity to open the scoring. Irish U19 international Neil Dougan was fouled in the box and the usually reliable Scott Davidson stepped up and missed the resulting spot kick.

From the following goalkick the visitors broke down the other end and unfortunately Fred Holtom was adjudged to have upended a Burnley player in the box and they took their opportunity to take a 1-0 lead into the interval.

It was a kick in the teeth for the unbeaten Lilywhites and they responded well after the interval and were finally rewarded with 15 minutes left when Jamie Proctor did well on the left wing and delivered an excellent cross, which Ryan McGreevy met and powered home the equaliser.

Five minutes later Ryan double his tally and gave North End the lead for the first time in the morning, finishing off after a through ball from Conor McLaughlin.

Ryan had earlier had two excellent chances to make the scoreline more representative of the performance; opportunities he would normally take, but ultimately he and the team kept going and saw out the game.

Hoyland told PNE.Com that the performance had been much better than the slim margin to victory suggested: "The scoreline makes it a very close game, but overall if we had took our chances, we would have been a lot more comfortable," he said.

"Fair play to Burnley, they came and set their stall out and in the first half they made it very difficult for us and took the lead, so our lads did well to come back from that."

The Premiership outfit came to Springfields looking to stifle North End's three-pronged attack, something the youth coach thinks will assist their progress: "It shows great respect for the lads. Speaking to the Burnley coach, Terry Pashley, after the game, he said they had sent the lads out in a different way, so we couldn't overrun them and that is good for us, because it is part of the lads' development. They are going to get that whoever they play against and for me as a coach it sets me different problems to solve and is great. But if the lads keep playing the way they are going, then it is very good.

"They are playing really well and it is a case of keeping their feet on the ground. We seem to be doing that; they are a good set of lads and don't get carried away too much."

Their next fixture is an away game in the first round of the Youth Alliance Cup, when they travel to Carlisle United on Saturday. They follow that with a home game on Wednesday afternoon at Springfields, when they face Rochdale in the Lancashire Youth Cup semi final, so it you have the opportunity why not get down and see the young Lilywhites in action.