Preston coasted to an easy victory over Wolves courtesy of a goal in each half from Lewis Neal and Brett Ormerod.

Neal gave the hosts the lead with four minutes of the first half remaining, his strike deflecting off Joleon Lescott and past the helpless Stefan Postma.

Then in the 71st minute, Ormerod finished the game off with a header from Chris Sedgwick's cross although he was subsequently stretchered off after more than five minutes of treatment.

Several weeks ago, the visitors had targeted this as a possible play-off decider but this victory moves North End, guaranteed a top-six finish before their fifth straight victory, 15 points ahead of the Molineux outfit.

And there was little reaction from Glenn Hoddle's side as they extended their winless run to six matches.

Wolves showed some early jitters at the back but looked slick going forward and Tomasz Frankowski had a low strike collected by North End goalkeeper Carlo Nash.

The visitors were enjoying more possession but were struggling to trouble a North End defence that had conceded just once in the previous five matches.

There was simply no tempo or rhythm to the game and when Graham Alexander put North End striker Patrick Agyemang into space after he cut out a loose pass, the forward blasted high and wide.

Wolves were still playing the neater football and after shooting wide moments earlier Frankowski was crowded out by the impressive Claude Davis after fine approach work with Jeremie Aliadiere.

On-loan North End midfielder Jason Jarrett finally created some work for Postma but the Wolves goalkeeper did well to hold his curling drive.

But that all changed four minutes before the break when Neal's heavily deflected effort opened the scoring.

Jarrett broke quickly down the right and when he laid the ball off, McKenna picked up Neal, who cut in from the right onto his preferred left foot and the deflection off Lescott gave Postma no chance.

North End started the second half on the front foot, camping out in Wolves territory but all they had to show for their dominance was a header over from Ormerod from Neal's corner.

Billy Davies' side have become experts at closing games off and in the face of a frustrating and directionless Wolves performance, they were happy to sit on their one-goal advantage.

But with 20 minutes left, substitute Sedgwick's first touch was a cross to the far post for Ormerod to stoop low and head past Postma, injuring himself in the process.

Soon after the impressive Simon Whaley saw a powerful drive come back off the crossbar while at the other end Rob Edwards finally forced a save from Nash with a header from Aliadiere's cross.

Teams

Preston: Nash, Mears, Davis, Wilson, Alexander, Whaley,Jarrett, McKenna, Lewis Neal (Sedgwick 70),Agyemang (Dichio 65), Ormerod (Hill 76).

Subs Not Used: Hibbert, Stock.

Goals: Lewis Neal 42, Ormerod 71.

Wolverhampton: Postma, Lowe, Lescott, Edwards, Ross,Ricketts (Cort 63), Miller (Seol 90), Cameron (Davies 86),Kennedy, Frankowski, Aliadiere.

Subs Not Used: Oakes, Little.

Att: 16,885

Ref: K Friend (Leicestershire).