Preston North End manager Alex Neil has taken a swipe at Wolverhampton Wanderers' "soft foreign players" for their antics in Saturday's 1-1 draw at Deepdale.

The expensively-assembled visiting side battled back to earn another point on the road to the Premier League, taking them 13 points clear of third place.

Wolves had a big helping hand from the referee, however, as Preston midfielder John Welsh was dismissed for two bookable offences with half an hour still to play in Lancashire.

Neil was left unhappy with the conduct of the Wolves players, with his side finishing a game against the pacesetters a man light for the second time this season.

"Against the likes of Wolves they've got a lot of soft foreign players haven't they?" he told reporters at his post-match presser. "I think a lot of them go down and look as if they're really hurt and makes the referee think the challenge is worse than it actually is.

"You can guarantee they're going to bounce back up within seconds and that's exactly what happened. It seems to be every time there was a free kick a booking would follow. John got himself sent-off and I thought the two bookings were soft to be honest.

"The way the Wolves players go down and roll around it looks like they are really hurt, making the referee think it was a really bad tackle when in actual fact it was an honest attempt to get the ball. I thought John had a good game up to that point."

Wolves had won three Championship matches in a row prior to their Deepdale draw at the weekend.