Ex-Norwich City chief Alex Neil insists his old club can plot a great escape to Premier League survival.

The Scot knows how tough it is to buck the odds, after failing to keep the Canaries in the top flight in his one season in the Premier League.

Neil's Preston were beaten 4-2 at Deepdale in the FA Cup last weekend and the 38-year-old has seen enough of Daniel Farke's squad to believe they can stay up.

"Listen Norwich City is a good side. A right good side," he said. "Don't just look at the league table. I watched them myself against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace over Christmas and the first half against Tottenham and you can see that in the way they move the ball. Maybe a bit like when I was at Norwich at Premier League level you can play well in a lot of games and if you don't take your chances you get punished. The quality is so high at that level. That is what I found in my time.

"They made changes against us but really apart from the boy (Teemu) Pukki up front and (Adam) Idah coming in I looked at the other changes and people like (Tom) Trybull, (Moritz) Leitner and (Marco) Stiepermann are all established senior players who could easily be in Norwich's Premier League line up every week."

Neil is trying to emulate his previous achievement at Carrow Road and seal Championship promotion. Preston were on the fringes of the top two a few weeks ago but head to Blackburn this weekend outside the play-off spots.

"We have not picked up the results we have wanted lately, there is no shying away from it," he said.

"What we need to do is go to Blackburn this weekend and get a good result.

"Two league games ago we played Leeds and were really buzzing about how we played, we were so close to winning. I think it's important we don't forget about that.

"Things can change really quickly and we need to get our momentum back.

"We are four points off third place, two points outside the play-off places. A couple of results can change things completely.

"But naturally our form is a concern and not good. We want to try and turn it around."