Preston North End 1-4 Hull City: Tigers come from behind to win at Deepdale

Hull's second goalscorer Richie Smallwood failed to score in 31 games last season

Hull City came from behind to thrash Preston North End at Deepdale as they made a flying start on their return to the Championship.

Richie Smallwood, Josh Magennis and substitute Andy Cannon grabbed second half goals to seal an emphatic victory after Keane Lewis-Potter had cancelled out Emil Riis Jakobsen's opener.

Having been promoted at the first attempt, last season's League One champions grabbed their first away win at this level since 1 January, 2020.

But it was a miserable afternoon for Frankie McAvoy in his first game as permanent Preston head coach.

McAvoy had taken 17 points from his eight matches in interim charge at the end of last season after replacing Alex Neil in March and was then given the job on a full-time basis.

Having suffered 11 home defeats in 2020-21, they were looking to rectify that and were celebrating inside the first 10 minutes when Riis Jakobsen slid in his first Championship goal since December.

But only Peterborough scored more in League One than Hull's 80 goals last season and Grant McCann's side once again showed that firepower.

Smallwood set up Lewis-Potter for an equaliser before the captain's deflected effort turned the game in the Tigers' favour in the second half.

Northern Ireland striker Magennis, who scored 18 times in last season's promotion campaign, and then Cannon, a summer signing from Rochdale, via another deflection, added gloss to the scoreline in the final 10 minutes.

Hull City manager Grant McCann told BBC Radio Humberside:

"To come anywhere in the Championship and win is very tough, so to come here and win in the manner we did is brilliant for everyone.

"I was really proud of the players and the fans and to send them home happy with four goals and three points is great for us and a long time coming since we had any fans in any stadium.

"We know we've got goals in the team for sure, but in terms of the whole game, the control in our performance and the way we were so calm was excellent. It's a good start for us and hopefully we continue with that."

Preston North End manager Frankie McAvoy told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"I'm bitterly, bitterly disappointed with the result, to be honest.

"We started well and scored a good goal, but after scoring, we ended up in a defensive mode. They started to control the ball a bit and I could see their goal coming.

"We changed it in the second half and looked a lot more threatening and had two great chances to take the lead. Their second goal was a massive deflection which took it away from Daniel (Iversen), but the third and four goals were extremely poor defending from our point of view."