"I thought we played very well in the opening stages and were unlucky not to have scored early on," Boothroyd said after the match.
"We had one come back off the bar and one cleared off the line. But you have make the most of it and take your chances when you have the momentum.
"We were surprised to go in at the break 1-0 down and never really recovered after the interval.
"You have to give credit to Preston because they kept going. They deserved the 2-0 win because they scored and we didn't when we had the momentum."