It was his 50th game in charge but ended in disappointment with Paul Gallagher scoring the winner for Stoke in a televised game.
The first half was a dull affair with David Jones, on loan from Manchester United for the season, shooting wide of the right-hand post.
Preston suffered when Brian O'Neil had a reoccurrence of a thigh injury and immediately walked off the pitch after half an hour giving a debut to Preston-born Adam Nowland, the ex-West Ham player who joined on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest.
It was substitute Nowland who had a 35-yard shot saved by the Stoke keeper after 38 minutes, with Gallagher having a shot saved by Carlo Nash just before half time and Patrick Agyemang also having a shot deflected for a corner.
Stoke made a substitution at the start of the second half, bringing on Kevin Harper for Luke Chadwick, and also six minutes into the half replaced Mamady Sidibe with Bruce Dyer.
Preston captain Chris Lucketti got booked for a foul on substitute Dyer after 62 minutes.
Carl Hoefkens hit a shot wide of the right-hand post and Dyer fired wide of the left-hand post with a right-foot effort.
David Nugent was booked for a foul on Steve Simonsen soon after.
Then Nowland ran past three defenders before passing to Jones whose shot was parried and Agyemang followed up but his shot was saved.
Stoke wrapped up the points in the 76th minute when Nash took a short free-kick to Graham Alexander who lost the ball to Martin Kolar.
The Stoke man crossed from the left to Gallagher and the striker scored with a right-foot shot into the bottom corner of the net.