Preston manager Craig Brown won his first game in a seven goal thriller with four penalties and two headers that hit the bar.
Craig Brown said "it was a good game for the spectators but not for the coaches," he was displeased to concede three goals.
Stoke manager Steve Cotterill said his players could walk out of the dressing room with their heads held high after taking the game to Preston in the second half.
Stoke made it 1-0 in the seventh minute when Chris Lucketti tripped Kris Commons, the penalty had to be re-taken but Clive Clarke scored the second as well as the first putting his left-foot shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
Graham Alexander missed a penalty in the ninth minute when Sergei Shtaniuk fouled Richard Cresswell and Alexander put his right-foot penalty wide of the right-hand post.
Healy made it 1-1 after 11 minutes when Shtaniuk fouled Ricardo Fuller and Rob Edwards took a left-foot free-kick from the right wing which David Healy met with a seven-yard glancing header into the bottom right.
Healy made it 2-1 after 24 minutes when Cresswell's shot was blocked and Healy hit a ten-yard shot in to the bottom left.
Fuller and Lucketti hit the bar with headers.
Fuller made it three with a right-foot shot after dribbling through the Stoke defence.
Clarke scored another penalty for Stoke after a Dickson Etuhu handball, he hit the spot-kick into the bottom left.
Stoke equalised in the 89th minute with an Andy Cooke header from a Commons left-wing corner.
Preston scored the winning goal in the fifth minute of added time when substiute Michael Keane found Cresswell with a long ball and he went round the keeper before scoring into an empty net to make it 4-3 to Preston