Emil Riis scrambled the Lilywhites in front after just three minutes, with the visitors going on to pepper shots at United’s goal in the opening stages.

Mark Harris though headed in his fourth goal in four league games as the clock hit 20 minutes, before second half efforts from Tyler Goodrham and Greg Leigh, either side of a second yellow card for Liam Lindsay, put the U’s two goals in front.

North End were playing in just their third game under new boss Paul Heckingbottom, who oversaw two victories in his first two outings, and a tactical tweak from the Lilywhites initially caught United out.

U’s head coach Buckingham said: “It’s difficult to work out when there’s a new manager in, what they might do. We can plan for what we think they might do, but they set up differently to what we thought they would.

“It took us a little bit to get to grips with that. In the first 10 or 15 minutes, they had the better of the game.

“We managed to get a message on, and get some changes into that, which I think balanced it up.

“It got us back into the game, and got us the goal. There were a couple of things at half-time which we changed, and really helped us in the second half.”

Buckingham was forced into making two changes before half-time, as Matt Phillips and Joe Bennett were withdrawn due to injury, with debutant Sirki Dembele and Leigh coming on for Phillips and Bennett respectively.

“It kills the substitutions because we have only one window left after half-time, which does a couple of things,” said Buckingham.

“It limits the ability to impact the game should you need to, both defensively and with the ball, but it also limits when we’ve got players on the bench like Dane Scarlett, Malcolm [Ebiowei] and Owen Dale, who we want to see, and they want to play, but it limits the opportunity to put them on.

“There’s no update yet. Matty got hit and went down, and Joe I think just overstretched when he tried to keep the ball in.

“There’s no more news on them, but what we do have now is a two-week break, which will be great for them. Hopefully it’s nothing too bad.”

Goodrham’s goal was no doubt the pick of the bunch for United, as he cut inside from the right and unleashed a wicked left-footed effort which bent and sneaked inside the far post.

Buckingham said: “I was right behind Tyler’s. It was a wonderful finish for him to cut in on the right-hand side. It’s normally him doing that on the opposite side, and curling with his right foot.

“There’s a reason we’ve signed Tyler to a long-term contract at this club. He’s thriving at the moment in the Championship, and long may that continue.”