Bournemouth 1-2 Preston North End: Visitors end Championship leaders' unbeaten record
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Ben Whiteman scored Preston's opening goal with their first shot on target
Preston inflicted a first league defeat of the season on Championship leaders Bournemouth thanks to goals from Ben Whiteman and Ali McCann.
The loss also brought Scott Parker's side's five-match winning run to an end and cut their lead at the top of the table to two points as his former club Fulham recorded an impressive 7-0 win at Blackburn.
Whiteman swept Preston ahead early in the second half from just inside the penalty area before Philip Billing equalised on the hour.
Despite Jamal Lowe and Chris Mepham going close to putting Bournemouth ahead, it was McCann who restored Preston's advantage with his first goal for the club after he put away a ball back across from Emil Riis.
Coming into the game, Bournemouth were the only side in the English Football League still with an unbeaten record this season.
The Cherries had won nine of their past 10 league games and all of their five previous home fixtures.
But a largely uneventful first half saw them struggle to break down a resilient Preston outfit who were without a win on the road at kick-off.
Neither goalkeeper was really tested before the interval and Mark Travers in Bournemouth's goal was beaten by Preston's first effort on target as Whiteman pounced on a loose ball from Tom Barkhuizen's half-cleared cross and found the roof of the net.
Bournemouth responded and Billing, via a deflection from Patrick Bauer, picked out the bottom left corner after he had created space inside the box to finish on his left foot.
Momentum seemed to be with the hosts as Lowe's cross was nearly sliced into his own net by Andrew Hughes while centre-back Mepham forced a save out of Daniel Iversen after a driving run and shot from just outside the box.
But it was the visitors who would score next to reclaim the lead as striker Riis got behind Bournemouth's defence before pulling the ball back for McCann to slot home with a low finish across goal.
Riis then missed a glorious chance to put the game to bed when he beat the offside trap for a one-on-one chance against Travers, but the Republic of Ireland stopper kept out his tame shot with an outstretched leg.
Moments later, Lowe thought he had drawn Bournemouth level again only for Iversen to produce a terrific reflex save. Stacey's initial shot had been parried into the path of Lowe but somehow he was denied from six yards out as the Dane got back up to make the block to his left.
He was alert once more as stoppage time arrived, diving across goal to beat away Stacey's drive from outside the box to bring an end to the Cherries' unbeaten start.
Bournemouth manager Scott Parker told BBC Radio Solent:
"It was a tough night for us. I thought we huffed and puffed without having that killer [instinct].
"Credit to Preston, I thought they came here and did a very good job with a very stubborn back five and three in front of them.
"They really reduced the spaces for our front players and our attacking side of the game and we just didn't have that quality in certain moments to unlock that door.
"We just weren't on our game tonight for one reason or another. Hopefully it's a blip, but we need to react now and go again.
"This is where we are now, we're still young in our development and this is where we'll find out exactly how good we are."
Preston manager Frankie McAvoy told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I'm delighted for the whole team and the backroom staff and the Hemmings family, they put their faith and trust in me to try and deliver results. The support has been absolutely amazing since I arrived here.
"I just felt we needed a game plan for tonight and we worked really hard on it yesterday in making it really tough for them when we were out of possession and then having a real positive shape when we came forward.
"I felt, in the main, we were excellent. They had a few moments, which you'd expect, but the players were magnificent to a man.
"I've always got faith and trust in the group I've got and they can be really proud of their efforts tonight.
"We'll reflect on the performance and then go and get ourselves as prepared as well we can for Nottingham Forest on Saturday."