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Kemar Roofe has only scored two goals this season but both have come in his last five matches

Leeds United cruised to a third successive Championship win by beating a Preston side who had Jermaine Beckford sent off against his ex-club.

Kemar Roofe opened the scoring, turning in Pontus Jansson's goal-bound header, and Hadi Sacko fired in to make it 2-0.

Marnick Vermijl's 20-yard strike then pulled one back for the home side.

But Souleymane Doukara's fine solo goal made it 3-1 and, after Beckford was sent off three minutes after coming on, Pablo Hernandez scored a fourth.

Beckford's 69th-minute dismissal, when he kicked out after reacting to a strong aerial challenge by Kyle Bartley, was his second in his past two appearances, having only returned to the squad for the Boxing Day match following his fight with team-mate Eoin Doyle.

An impressive display from Leeds saw them coast into a 2-0 lead thanks to Roofe, who scored the first and teed up Sacko for number two.

Doukara's strike, which squirmed too easily past goalkeeper Chris Maxwell, restored the two-goal lead and quickly dampened the home side's hopes following Vermijl's brilliant strike.

And, after Beckford's red card, substitutes Chris Wood and Hernandez combined for the latter to slide in a fourth away goal.

Preston manager Simon Grayson:

"It was inconsistent from the referee but Jermaine Beckford has to react in a better way than he has done.

"I think he got a nasty knee in the back but you can't react and that took the wind out of our sails. You don't need to be going down to 10 men too many times in this division.

"It's something that Jermaine has to accept, he will get a four-match ban and we'll lose him.

"I think sometimes in the heat of the moment we do things we shouldn't do but you'd like to think the older players can cope with it."

Leeds United head coach Garry Monk:

"They play quite a direct game. We accepted that really well and went toe to toe.

"We managed to get ourselves some good goals, the only disappointment being their goal. That was the only time where I thought we lost concentration.

"It was a good reaction after that, though, to regain the two-goal lead. I thought it was a very good all-round performance against a team that are doing very well lately.

"It's great to be winning games. We are fighting hard to improve and we are learning all the time. But it's step by step - our fight is for the three points ahead of us."