Ryan Lowe felt his Preston side were denied a clear penalty as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home by fellow play-off hopefuls Hull at Deepdale.

In a Sky Bet Championship game that did not help either side’s promotion ambitions, Lowe was adamant that his team should have been awarded a spot-kick early in the second half for a pull on Will Keane as he looked to pounce following Ryan Allsop’s save from Emil Riis.

It was not given, and while Preston had the better of the chances, they had to settle for just a point in their bid for a place in the top-six.

Lowe said: “I thought we deserved a penalty, a decision has gone against us that has probably not seen us take all three points. Unfortunately for us it hasn’t been given, but it’s a penalty.

“Will Keane has been pulled back and Keano’s been pulled right around, but maybe the referee is used to reffing in the Premier League…he’s used to someone speaking in his ear, stop and then decide what to do.

“I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is that 11 decisions have gone against us this season and three for us.

“It’s become a little bit of a concern, because if it goes into 14-15, then it’s costing us points.”

He added: “I thought we were excellent, with and without the ball. I think we kept their front three quiet, I thought our defenders were immense.

“There was only one team on the front foot trying to win the game of football and that was us.”

Ben Whiteman had a couple of early chances for Preston but did not overly trouble Allsop, while Freddie Woodman had to be alert in goal at the other end to deny Fabio Carvalho.

Preston threatened early in the second half, Andrew Hughes heading over and Whiteman seeing a shot deflected wide, before Riis’ attempt and the contentious follow-up.

At the other end, Jaden Philogene was somehow denied by Woodman while Allsop produced some late heroics to earn the visitors a point, to the delight of boss Liam Rosenior.

He said: “It was a hard-fought, physical, winter battle.

“I’m delighted with the players’ attitude, but I felt if we’d have had a little bit more calmness in our play, which is hard to do when you come away from home, then we would have come away with a win.

“I thought the players stood up really, really well to the challenge, but obviously I’m disappointed not to win the game.

“There’s a lot on the line, we have to remember Preston are in great form. You could sense in the stadium the energy of the team and what a big game it was for them to push up to us.

“I felt after the first 10 minutes we played our football and we controlled the game and looked like a real threat. But we just couldn’t get the goal and that’s a real shame.

“The game plan was to make it our game, we worked all week on trying to stop balls coming into our box, but then trying to control the game by making it our game.

“It’s a brave thing I’m asking the players to do. We made mistakes, but we just couldn’t get the goal our play deserved.”