John Welsh has paid tribute to his Preston North End teammates for their performance in Monday's 3-1 FA Cup defeat to Manchester United.

Scott Laird fired Preston into a 1-0 lead on 48 minutes at Deepdale as the League One outfit threatened a major upset.

Goals from Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini and Wayne Rooney helped United progress, but Welsh cannot fault the Lilywhites' effort last night.

"The work rate and the passion the lads showed, you can't fault them, to a man," he told the club's official website. "We had good shape, good organisation on the pitch and we knew that is what we needed to get anything from the game.

"I think we had a really, really good balance first half and we kept our organisation, kept our shape and played from the shape. We knew that if we stayed in the game for as long as we could that we had a chance of scoring.

"Lairdy gets the goal and we thought there was a hint of offside for their first goal but these things don't always go for you. They smelt blood, world class players, that's what they do."

Simon Grayson's side host Scunthorpe on Saturday afternoon.