Last updated on .From the section Championship

Jarrod Bowen has now scored nine goals in his past seven games for Hull City

Jarrod Bowen scored twice as Hull City thumped Preston North End, who slipped to their second Championship defeat in a row.

Bowen tapped into the bottom left-hand corner from close range to give the hosts the lead on the half-hour mark.

Hull won a penalty after the break when Josh Bowler was fouled by Ryan Ledson and Josh Magennis fired in from the spot.

Kamil Grosicki added a third soon after when he slotted in a delivery from Bowen, who added his second from a tight angle to wrap up three points.

The result means Preston drop to fifth in the table, six points off the automatic promotion places, while Hull rise to ninth.

North End enjoyed the better of the early stages and almost edged ahead when Sean Maguire struck the post before Paul Gallagher saw his follow-up shot deflected wide.

However, the hosts weathered Preston's early pressure and then began to dominate with Bowen scoring his ninth goal in seven games.

Preston looked off the pace after the break and faced an uphill battle after Magennis, who made his return from a four-match ban for picking up two red cards this season, scored his penalty and Grosicki made it three following a superb team move.

Bowen rounded off the win with his 12th league goal of the season and 50th for the Tigers as he blasted the ball in at the near post.

Tom Barkhuizen hit the left-hand post in a rare second half Preston attack but they could not find a consolation.

Hull City boss Grant McCann told BBC Radio Humberside:

It's probably our most compete performance of the season. We've had games where seven or eight of the team has performed and we've won.

Tonight, one to 11 every single one of them were outstanding. We were probably hurting a little bit from the first half showing at Middlesbrough.

We took that into tonight and started well on the front foot. We were disappointed that we didn't come in with at least a two-nil lead.

Preston North End manager Alex Neil:

"To start with, we had players playing out of position. We have got one fit full-back at the club. We are missing a left-sided centre-back and, naturally, the defence is weakened because of that.

"It was one of them ones where we came up against a team where their best players are their wide players and all my full-backs are missing, so I knew it was going to be difficult.

"Their forward players we struggled to deal with and I thought they were ruthless when they got into good positions."