Preston sack manager Alex Neil following Luton defeat

Preston North End have parted company with manager Alex Neil after almost four years in charge following the 1-0 home defeat by Luton Town yesterday.

The 39-year-old took over in the summer of 2017 but has seen the Lilywhites slip down the table in recent weeks, with the late loss at Deepdale the final straw.

Frankie McAvoy will take up the position of interim head coach and work with Steve Thompson, Mike Pollitt and Paul Gallagher in taking the team for the remaining eight games of the season.

Speaking after yesterday's clash, keeper Daniel Iversen diverting James Collins' late shot into his own net as Luton won at Deepdale for the first time since 1972, Neil said: "I’m just disappointed.

"We didn’t do a lot of the basics well enough first half for me, we didn’t get round to the second ball well enough, we didn’t use the ball well enough at times.

“We had a couple of little errors that we got away with.

"I didn’t think there was a lot of opportunities in the game to be honest, what happens is at the moment for us, if there’s a goal to be scored, we seem to find ourselves on the wrong end of it.

“I didn’t think there were many chances for both teams, but when the goal had to come about, they got it.

"The basics at the moment, we're finding really difficult to do and that makes it really difficult to win football matches.

"People talk about knowing your best team, but if I'm being honest, I haven't got a Scooby-Doo what that is at the moment.

"Your best team generally has reliability and you're getting your best out of it week in, week out. At the moment, we're nowhere near that."