Paul Heckingbottom was left to rue a missed chance as Preston North End were held to a 1-1 draw by Millwall in Tuesday's Championship clash.

Mihailo Ivanovic caught Freddie Woodman off-guard with his 40th-minute free-kick, rattling an opener in from a tight angle at Deepdale.

However, Preston came flying out the blocks and levelled soon after the restart as Emil Riis hammered a delightful volley into the bottom-left corner.

Kaine Kesler-Hayden spurned a couple of chances in the second half, while Will Keane and Milutin Osmajic both passed up presentable opportunities to snatch the win for Preston against their former boss Alex Neil.

Heckingbottom believes his team deserved the points, and that may have been a fair assessment considering Preston accumulated 1.42 expected goals to Millwall's 0.33.

"We were certainly the dominant team but it's a positive point, having gone behind to a team who defend really well," the Preston manager said.

"We were [the ones pushing]. We did more than enough. I bet we've more than doubled their shots. I bet we've probably more than quadrupled their touches in penalty box. It's one of those."

Indeed, Preston managed 16 shots to Millwall's nine, as well as 35 touches in their opposition box compared to the visitors' seven.

Heckingbottom suggested Ivanovic should never have had the chance to score from his free-kick opener, too, questioning the foul in the build-up.

"It's not a free-kick that they score from, that's a frustration," he added. "Ali [McCann] kicks it away with his left foot.

“We then did lose a little bit of control of the game but I was relaxed about that. If Millwall had any good possession it meant that when they did lose it or we won it, the game was a little bit more open.

“To go behind, we spoke about being patient, we spoke about remaining composed because the game was exactly as we thought.

"The fact it wasn't even a foul, more frustration and that's the type of thing where you can play into someone's hands when they're set up that way, but we didn't and we stayed composed.

"We were the more dangerous team throughout."

The draw leaves Preston and Millwall level on 42 points, though Neil's side are 14th and one place above Tuesday's hosts on goal difference.