A damaging first half for the Reds at Deepdale on Friday evening saw the home side open up a three-goal lead courtesy of strikes from Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile, Max Wilson and Theo Mawene.
Dylan Gairns put the tie firmly beyond the visitors just after the hour mark, meaning Clae Ewing’s late finish was barely a consolation.
There was a lively start to proceedings and Preston grabbed an advantage with just eight minutes on the clock.
A hoisted cross from the right-hand side carried all the way to the back stick and found Rodriguez-Gentile in space. And the home No.9 capitalised fully with a finish swept inside the near post.
Rodriguez-Gentile twice threatened again as Preston posed a persistent danger, sending one effort into the hands of Kornel Misciur and another over the crossbar.
Liverpool’s goalkeeper had to produce a more impressive save midway through the half, diving high to his left to paw away a curler by Mawene.
But it was a temporary reprieve. A minute later, Wilson tried his luck with a drive from outside the ‘D’ that took a beneficial deflection off Carter Pinnington and found the net.
Misciur saved a low snapshot from the influential Mawene before the Preston forward did score with a piece of play all of his own making.
From a position on the byline near halfway, Mawene was able to advance via a dribble and having drifted infield, he lashed a shot into the top left corner for 3-0.
Rio Ngumoha offered the best threat from the Reds before the break as he broke into a pocket of space on the left and threaded a low shot that was stopped by Li-Bau Stowell.
But Liverpool were fortunate not to fall further behind ahead of half-time, with Pinnington making a vital double block and Rodriguez-Gentile squandering a clear chance at close range.
Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s Reds were bright in the early phases of the second half – Kareem Ahmed arced an effort too high from just inside the box and Joe Bradshaw’s hit from an angle was blocked by Stowell.
Hopes of a comeback were essentially extinguished in the 61st minute, however.
From a long kick into Liverpool territory, Rodriguez-Gentile got in behind and cut the ball back into the middle of the area, where Gairns was on hand to guide in Preston’s fourth goal.
Mawene was soon inches away from increasing the lead again, but his strike from distance dropped the wrong side of the right post having clipped heavily off DJ Esdaille.
The Reds kept trying in the face of a stubborn opponent and did get on the scoresheet seven minutes from the end, Ewing converting nicely when Kieran Morrison beat his man along the right and rolled a cross into the box.
**Team**
Misciur, Esdaille (Enahoro-Marcus, 68), Ewing, Pitt, Pinnington, O’Connor (Upton, 68), Bradshaw, Morrison, Sonni-Lambie, Ahmed, Ngumoha.
Unused subs: Hall, Furnell-Gill, Cisse, Lonmeni, Martin.
**Next up**
Liverpool’s U19s travel to Girona for their final league-phase fixture of the UEFA Youth League on Tuesday (December 10).
Kick-off is 11am GMT and the game will be [**shown live on LFCTV GO**](https://video.liverpoolfc.com/live-events).