Aune Heggebo came off the bench on the hour and rifled home an 82nd-minute leveller just four minutes after Andrew Hughes hooked North End into the lead from a corner.

It was Alexander’s first point as Preston manager since he left Bradford in September and despite seeing a maiden win slip away, he chose to focus on the positives.

Alexander said: “It’s how we want to compete without a shadow of a doubt. We didn’t take a backwards step. They’re a really good team.

“They’ve got some top players who can open you up but they didn’t make us go backwards and submit and just stand off them.

“We gained strength from just turning a few balls over and I think it gave the players more confidence to stay on the front foot and I think there’s a risk-reward element to it.”

Alexander talked about the need for “significant change” when discussing the departure of first-team coaches Peter Murphy and Andy Liddell earlier this week, and he was keen to talk up how he wants his team to play going forward.

He added: “I want us to be a team that are the protagonists that want to have a go at people, that don’t take a backwards step unless forced to, which they did with a couple of moments, but the mentality of the players was absolutely top notch.

“You’re going toe-to-toe with a team at the top end of this division. I don’t think anyone outside of Preston would have given us a chance today but we’ve shown we’ve got a beating heart and that we’re in the fight.”

West Brom’s late revival made it seven points out of their last nine but James Morrison wanted more.

Albion’s head coach said: “I thought we were in control for large periods. I felt we weren’t very good in the top-end of the pitch. We weren’t clinical enough. We didn’t have enough spark in the top end of the pitch.

“I enjoyed watching us in some stages. I felt we were getting into lots of opportunities but without creating anything.

“There were a lot of opportunities where we could have had the opportunity to score but I felt we didn’t have that in us today. I felt we took the easy options and then, when it’s 0-0, they’ve always got an opportunity.

“The goal, obviously, we don’t get them but we seem to gift goals at the moment which is worrying.”

West Brom have fallen behind six times this season, including in their last two matches when they fought back to win, but Morrison is aware that they need to cut out the slow starts.

“The lads showed good character again,” he added. “They had to wake up.

“But we should’ve been out of sight really. They’re a team that are searching for something and we gave them a lifeline.”