Blackpool boss Mick McCarthy questioned if his side have the quality to stay in the Sky Bet Championship after falling to a 3-1 defeat against local rivals Preston.

The hosts were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to a fine finish from former Tangerines star Brad Potts and a clever free-kick from Ben Whiteman.

Tom Cannon capped a quick counter-attack with a superb strike six minutes after the break to wrap up the win, Jerry Yates scored a late close-range consolation.

The result is a significant boost to Preston’s play-off ambitions, but defeat leaves Blackpool second from bottom in the table.

“I believe we’ve got the fight and determination to survive, but it’s whether we’ve got the quality,” said McCarthy.

“We’ve not taken our chances, we’ve conceded another three goals today, and we’re not helping ourselves.”

“We are under pressure we know that, and we’re trying our very best to stay in the league.

“We’ll be back in again on Monday, and back in the oven again.

“You’ve got to make sure the lads are ready to play at the level of the Championship and recognise that we’ve still got games coming thick and fast.

“We’ve got more proper scraps like this to come – that’s the way the Championship is.

“I’m bitterly disappointed for everyone, that’s for us and all the fans who turned up. They will have expected more.

“We started okay, but when we got the chances we didn’t take them.

“The mood is pretty lousy in there, as you’d expect.”

Preston boss Ryan Lowe was delighted for the fans after a crucial derby day win.

He said: “We deserved a clean sheet, but we’ve got the bragging rights for our fans, and our performance warranted that. I’m buzzing for the fans.

“As derbies go, it was frantic at times of course, but I’m delighted for the lads because they’ve shown loads of commitment and character.

“It was going to be crucial, whoever got the first goal, so for us to get it so early was great.

“After that, the lads carried out the game plan superbly.

“I didn’t want any sloppiness to creep in, and I don’t think it did until they scored right at the end maybe.

“We know it’s so tough to stay in and around the chasing pack, but that’s what we’ll try and do.

“We’ve still got three or four home games left to get results so we can get after those above us, so then it doesn’t necessarily look as bad as it is.

“The lads need to show how good they are.

“There are lots of internationals in our squad, so they need to show just what they’ve got.”