Preston's nine men held on in the face of adversity to record a stunning victory over league leaders West Brom on a memorable Deepdale night.
Leading 2-1 thanks to strikes from Youl Mawene and Karl Hawley, referee Keith Stroud then baffled the masses inside the hallowed venue by dismissing the former for an offence he can hardly be accused of actually having committed, and followed it up by also sending Chris Brown to the changing rooms early.
Fortunately it didn't matter as Alan Irvine's resolute team held firm, landing a crucial three points through seeing off another of the division's leading lights on home soil.
The unchanged Preston side was on the back foot in the early stages against a West Brom side shorn of August's match winners Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller, with James Morrison flashing a beautiful ball right along the face of goal in the opening moments that was crying out for an instinctive striker's interception.
However, just as they did on Saturday, North End found the net with their first attempt on goal. Great work from Chris Brown down the right hand flank forced a sixth minute corner, and Darren Carter's perfectly weighted deep delivery was met by a crouching header from Youl Mawene, who headed back across the goalkeeper's line of sight to mark his 100th league start for the Club in superb fashion.
Carter looked like a man with a point to prove against the men that let him go in the summer, and a committed challenge in midfield gained possession for the Birmingham born midfielder, and after trading passes with Simon Whaley he let fly with an ambitious long range effort that only narrowly missed the angle of Dean Kiely's post and crossbar.
West Brom should have used their heads and cleared when a high ball put their defence under pressure, but to use a playground phrase the defenders, as one, 'chickened out' and were made to pay in painful fashion as Brown got on the end of the delivery and turned it into Hawley's path. His vicious shot struck Bostjan Cesar full in the face before rebounding clear, but not without sufficiently troubling the centre half to the extent of requiring him to seek medical assistance.
West Brom began to show a little more of what they were capable of as the midway point of the first half ticked along, with Robert Koren and Roman Bednar breaking with intent and trading return passes before the former struck a low drive that Callum Davidson was forced to block with an out-stretched leg.
Carter's commitment helped to create another opening, dispossessing a hesitant Martin Albrechtsen with a crunching challenge and teeing up Brown, but the movement of his leg while firing the shot resembled a decent golf swing and the ball flew high and wide accordingly. It was at odds with Brown's usual par, with his excellent holding up and distribution helping to create holes in the Baggies backline.
Brown's ability to unlock defences was apparent when he created another superb opening akin to a combination of the first two goals in Saturday's 4-1 FA Cup victory at Derby. Breaking free in a channel down the right hand side of the penalty area, he reached the dead ball line before pulling an intended pass back towards Hawley. Though his strike partner couldn't get a genuine connection on the delivery, it squirmed through to Whaley on the overlap, and he was desperately unlucky to see a powerful shot deflect off the inside of the near post and back through the crowd of bodies that had converged on the goal line.
There was a hint of offside when the Baggies next countered with conviction, but the flag stayed down as Filipe Teixeira broke into a shooting position and brought an excellent low block out of Andy Lonergan's palms. From the resulting corner, Cesar headed a good chance wide of target, and Lonergan was again called into action moments later.
Bednar's angled shot brought a fine save from Lonergan, and though Teixeira turned in the rebound, the whistle had already been blown for controlling the ball with his hand before producing a hard, low shot inside the bottom right hand corner.
Hawley was denied from close range by Kiely as the half ended in see-saw fashion, and it took another great block from Lonergan to deny Jonathan Greening as he looked to convert Koren's low cross from the right. The referee then somehow missed Greening's successful attempt to kick the ball out of Lonergan's grasp, and only a combination of mis-kicks and scrambled clearances got the ball away to safety.
Carter curled a free kick straight into Kiely's midriff and Davidson was denied a penalty appeal after seemingly being bundled over in the box by Greening in an eventful solitary minute of stoppage time at the end of an absorbing 45 minutes of football.
Then hosts could have doubled their lead almost immediately after the resumption of hostilities, with Chris Sedgwick creating space for himself down the right and sending over an inviting hanging cross, but Whaley couldn't keep his shot down as he met it on the half-volley at the back post.
At the other end, Gera looked to punish Carter for giving away possession in a dangerous spot, but Lonergan again had no difficultly in sealing a solid grasp on the ball after a powerfully hit shot dipped as it flew towards him.
It was certainly a warning strike to North End, but sadly they didn't learn quickly enough from it. Within five minutes of the half's resumption, Gera cut inside from the left to create space, and he exploited it magnificently to fire a powerful, swerving and unstoppable shot into the top left corner.
From being behind at half-time, the away side were almost ahead within minutes as Teixeira broke free inside the box and looked a good bet to score, but Sean St Ledger produced a magnificent smothering challenge to put the Portuguese playmaker off balance and turn his eventually muffled shot wide of target.
A brilliant surging run from Hawley helped to create a good opening for Carter, and though he struck his shot with accuracy it was kept out - albeit despite some credible shouts of handball against the lunging Carl Hoefkens.
WBA countered immediately, and James Morrison just about held off the challenge of Callum Davidson as he broke through and stabbed a shot at goal, but once again Mr Lonergan refused to be beaten.
With 20 minutes remaining, the value of those saves was proven when Karl Hawley created and finished North End's second goal. Having been taken out by an aerial attack from Bostjan Cesar, the former Walsall man dusted himself down and took up a place in the box, where he was in the right place to head home acrobatically after Mawene and St Ledger had combined to turn McKenna's set piece back into the danger zone.
Mawene and Bednar got a ticking off from referee Keith Stroud after a bit of argy-bargy inside the box, and then Greening produced a contender for miss of the season after turning the ball over the bar from two yards out after being expertly picked out by substitute Craig Beattie's first touch.
Beattie's quality then led to another superb opening - he was felled by Chilvers on the very edge of the box, and only a wonderous save from Lonergan in tipping Gera's curling free kick onto the bar kept the home side ahead.
The last five minutes then turned into an unnecessarily nervy wait for the PNE faithful after an embarrassingly petty refereeing call from stand-in official Keith Stroud, who was a late replacement for Uriah Rennie earlier in the day. Mawene, who had sustained a shoulder injury since his earlier booking for tangling with Bednar, was dismissed for alleged time wasting despite having made the best possible attempt to keep the game flowing.
Running towards the bench while holding his shoulder, Youl was then turned back, as the fourth official wasn't ready to bring Matt Hill into the action as North End prepared to defend the corner following Lonergan's wonder save. As the Frenchman turned back to rejoin his team mates, the referee inexplicably deemed him to have been guilty of a cardinal footballing sin and sent him to the stands in farcical circumstances.
Brown then joined him in seeing red after being shown a second yellow for a tussle near the corner flag with Albrechtsen in stoppage time - just moments after he collected his first booking for time-wasting.
The tension was unbearable, but North End held on - to the audible delight of the PNE faithful.
PNE: Lonergan, St Ledger, Chilvers, Mawene, Davidson, Sedgwick (sub Chaplow 87), McKenna (capt), Carter, Whaley, Brown, Hawley (sub Hill 87). Subs not used: Chris Neal, Lewis Neal, Mellor.
West Brom: Kiely, Hoefkens (sub Beattie 76), Robinson, Koren, Greening (capt), Bednar, Gera, Albrechtsen, Teixeira (sub Brunt 76), Cesar, Morrison. Subs not used: Steele, Barnett, MacDonald.
Booked: Mawene (76), Brown (90)
Sent off: Mawene (85), Brown (90)
Referee: Keith Stroud.
