PRESTON North End brought down the curtain on their preparations for the new season with this very entertaining game against Athletico Bilbao which ended in a 3-1 win for the Spanish footballing giants.

Even allowing for the millions of pounds worth of talent that Bilbao paraded at Deepdale, it was a magnificent moment late in the match from North End which delighted the Preston fans and sent them home drooling, albeit with only consolation in defeat.

Trailing three nil, Preston came at the Spaniards once again and Paul McKenna got possession on the left hand side of the box.

He looked at the packed penalty area and then played in a high ball towards the far post.

There didn't look to be anything on, but then, enter Mark Rankine with a perfectly timed run to meet the cross and a scorching header crashed into the net behind Imanol Etxeberria and Deepdale exploded into a cauldron of noise as the North End fans celebrated a rare goal from the midfielder.

He doesn't get many, but THAT one was worth the wait. For forty-five minutes, Preston more than held their own against the impressive visitors and Bjarki Gunnlaugsson should have put them one up after David Eyres and Mark Rankine linked well for Rankine to play in a low ball into the path of the Icelander on eight yards out and with a clear sight of goal.

The Preston supporters got ready to salute a goal but Gunnlaugsson seemed to take his eye off the ball and smashed it high and wide.

That proved costly for in the opening minutes of the second half Athletico Bilbao took the lead with a fine opportunist goal from David Karanka and six minutes later Julen Guerrero added an impressive second.

Karanka was only inches away from knocking in number three when he rose like a gazelle at the far post to meet a cross Garcia.

The third did arrive however, when Preston were caught on the break and Francisco Javier took advantage of some poor marking at the back to wrap up the scoring.

Paul Morgan showed some nice touches for North End and may have played himself into the reckoning for a place at Grimsby on Saturday (August 12) when North End when will be hoping for a solid opening.

With skipper Sean Gregan and Michael Jackson unavailable on the opening day, Preston boss David Moyes has a problem with selection for two key positions.