BILLY Davies was more than happy with a point from a game which, just an hour before kick-off, the players were not even sure they would get to.

A 16-car pile-up on the M6 meant the North End squad didn't arrival at Stoke's Britannia Stadium until 20 minutes before the due kick-off time of 3pm.

The home side agreed to delay the start by ten minutes, and within 20 minutes of the late start, Preston had already used up two of their substitutes.

First it was Callum Davidson who limped off to be replaced by Marlon Broomes, who in turn returned to the bench soon afterwards, also injured. That left the source of much of North End's attack this season, Eddie Lewis, operating as an emergency left-back as Preston looked to break forward and snatch a lead.

But it was Stoke's Ade Akinbiyi who went closest in the first half, when his header was well saved by Andrew Lonergan in North End's goal.

North End ruled much of the second half, with Dickson Etuhu and Patrick Agyemang both firing over before final sub Omar Daley hit the woodwork. Davies said: "We could not make our usual preparations today because the crash on the motorway meant we were late arriving but Stoke were very considerate in delaying the kick-off by ten minutes.

"But it was an excellent performance, which we are very pleased about and all we can do now is look to the game and be delighted with the point we got.

"It was an excellent reaction from the players in the first half. We were disappointed to lose two players through injury but in the second half we performed very well and deserved an awful lot more."