Just prior to Christmas Preston put in a decent performance before the Sky cameras as they defetaed Bristol City by a solitary goal. Sinclair was fouled in the box and Johnson scored the resultant penalty.
North End didn't take the momentum from that Deepdale win and were fairly flat throughout away at Derby until virtually the last kick of the game when Browne curled in a shot from the edge of the area.
Preston were poor and the main talking point of the first half was a sending off as Waghorn went in high with his studs on Browne. The Preston player thankfully wasn't seriously injured but the Derby player was sent off.
It has been a theme of Neil's reign that Preston find it difficult to break down sides that sit back. This game was no different as Preston lacked any creativity.
Josh Earl looked the most likely to cause trouble raiding down the left hand side on a number of occasions but in reality the Derby keeper was rarely troubled.
Several subsittutions made no difference as Riis, Stockley and Harrop were all thrown on to little or no effect. The game looked to be heading for a drab nil nil draw.
In added time the ball fell to Browne on the edge of the box. He swung his left boot and the ball curled past the keeper to give Preston all three points.
It was the one moment of excitement in a throughly dull game but Preston will take the three points and back to back clean sheets which pulls them away from the bottom end of the table.
Consistency is now the key over the next few weeks but questions still need to be addressed if Preston are to even think about making a challenge on the top six places.