TEN-man Burnley battled bravely but suffered their second Pontins' Holidays League West defeat.

The visistors started the brighter of the two young line-ups and took the lead just after the half-hour, when goalkeeper Jonathan Sergeant spilled the ball and Ashley Higgins was quickest to poke it home.

The game took another nasty twist for Burnley two minutes later, when James Cragg was sent off for a late two-footed challenge on Phil Appiah close to the halfway line.

Going down to 10 men seemed to provide the spark that Burnley needed, and the lively Jay Rodriguez - the only professional in Burnley's squad - and Alex MacDonald were both denied by goal-keeper Chris Neal.

On the stroke of half-time, Adam Kay's clever free kick for a foul on Chris Anderson was rolled to Rodriguez in the box, but the striker just missed the target six yards out.

Rodriguez almost grabbed an equaliser with a brilliant solo effort in the second half.

After picking the ball up on the left, the 18-year-old skipped past a couple of token tackles as he cut inside and was unlucky to bend the ball wide of the far right post.

Preston put pressure on with 15 mintues to go but Tom Bradley and Dean Stott made brave blocks inside the area.