Darren Ambrose was on target as Crystal Palace snatched a 1-1 draw at Deepdale and denied Preston the chance to move back into the Coca-Cola Championship play-off places.

The former Newcastle and Charlton midfielder is enjoying a prolific season since joining the Eagles on a free transfer in the summer, and he tucked away his eighth goal of the campaign to cancel out Ross Wallace's strike.

Wallace fired Preston into a deserved lead with a superb curling free-kick but their advantage lasted less than two minutes before Ambrose struck.

He was given too much time to control Alan Lee's header, turn and sweep the ball past Andy Lonergan in the 38th minute.

Richard Chaplow could have won the game for North End in the final 10 minutes when he was played in behind the Palace defence, but one-on-one with goalkeeper Julian Speroni the midfielder screwed his shot wastefully wide.