Oli McBurnie continued his rich vein of scoring form with a second-half double as Hull City stormed back from 2-0 down to rescue a point against Preston.

The Tigers' leaky defence conceded twice inside the opening 10 minutes, with Thierry Small and Michael Smith both scoring their first goals in a North End shirt.

Preston dominated the first half, but the home side improved dramatically after the break and McBurnie quickly converted Ryan Giles' cross to reduce the deficit.

The same combination then brought the Tigers level as McBurnie grabbed his fifth goal in four games - and his sixth overall this season.

It took North End only three minutes to breach the home defence as they struggled to deal with a corner and Small pounced on Lewie Coyle's unconvincing header, turning his marker and arrowing a low drive into the net.

Hull looked sluggish, with numerous passes going astray and they gifted another shooting opportunity to Lewis Gibson, whose half-volley from the edge of the box was comfortably saved by Ivor Pandur.

But the goalkeeper's weak clearance soon afterwards was easily cut out by Ben Whiteman, who quickly set up Smith and, under minimal pressure, the striker clipped his finish into the net.

The situation might have deteriorated further for the Tigers as Andrija Vukcevic's drive was deflected behind and they offered little in response for the rest of the first half – prompting Sergej Jakirovic into a triple change at the break.

That appeared to galvanise Hull, who halved the deficit within three minutes of the restart as Giles slid a low cross from the left to McBurnie, who controlled the ball and rammed it into the net.

Two of the new arrivals, Liam Millar and Joe Gelhardt – whose free-kick was clawed over the bar by Daniel Iversen – both went close as the Tigers pushed for an equaliser, although Alfie Devine could have made it 3-1, spearing over from close range.

But Hull continued to threaten along the left-hand side and Millar's incisive pass released Giles in behind the visitors' defence, firing the ball into the box for McBurnie to scramble home.

Both sides could have snatched a late victory, with Pandur denying Jordan Storey from close range before Iversen leapt to his right to push John Lundstram's thunderous drive behind in added time.

Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside:

"It was a great reaction from the players at half-time. At the end we have to be satisfied with this point.

"We tried everything in the second half to turn this game, we needed to be better on the ball and take more risks. We made three substitutions, they lifted us and brought us a lot of energy on the pitch and also we were very dangerous in the attacking phase.

"In the first half we made too many mistakes, we were struggling all half because we lost our confidence and we didn't cover the ball well.

"They were better in challenges than us and this was something we needed to change at half-time, to bring more fight, more character to put them under pressure, especially if we scored in the first 15 minutes."