Ryan Mason admits he felt a feeling among his West Brom squad before Preston victory

The Baggies returned from the international break with a 2-1 victory over Preston at The Hawthorns for just a first home victory since the opening day.

Mason's side signed off for the break with a desperately poor 3-0 defeat at Millwall and the head coach admitted he could sense the determination from his troops to show an improvement and not feel similar pain.

An even contest was decided by wonderful strikes from Mikey Johnston and Isaac Price, five minutes before the interval and after the hour mark. Preston pulled one back through Michael Smith with 12 minutes left but, unlike home clashes against Derby and Leicester, the Baggies did not succumb to late misery.

Mason felt his side got the message the visit to the capital last time out.

"The Millwall match was disappointing from a performance and result point of view," Mason said afterwards. "We've not had a feeling like that all season and we certainly didn't want to have that feeling today.

"The players felt it after Millwall, which I said at the time was important that you feel when you've had that type of game. To wait two weeks is a long time, with lads going away for international, but I could feel it before the game.

"I could feel the determination and the desire within the group to get a result, which is the most important thing."

There was some controversy in the clash as Preston were denied what visiting boss Paul Heckingbottom felt was a clear penalty for Toby Collyer's trip on Harrison Armstrong in the box with the scoreline at 0-0. Mason suggested he felt the challenge could have resulted in a spot-kick while watching live, but had not seen subsequent replays which showed little or no contact from Collyer on the ball.

Josh Griffiths made a fine one-v-one save to deny Milutin Osmajic before Johnston's stunning opener that rocketed into the top corner from 25 yards.

But, even after away sub Smith had pulled one back for 2-1, the Baggies appeared comfortable in the finale despite a lengthy nine minutes of stoppages - a period added on which perplexed Mason.

"We're happy because we won, it was a difficult game," Mason said after his side inflicted just a second league defeat of the season on the visitors.

"They're a good side, they put a lot of energy into the game. We're happy that we got over the line with a win. It's important that we win our home games and make this place count because we've had a lot of performances this season at home where we haven't got the result that we deserved.

"I think today was a tight game, obviously with two moments of brilliance that won us the game, so we're very happy."

Preston looked the brighter for much of the opening half an hour and it took Mason's side some time to find their gears against a side who started the day two points clear of Albion and in fourth.

Mason added: "I thought it was a good game. They were super aggressive. I was saying to some of the coaches after, it wasn't really a game that allowed us to have too much control.

"I think the nature of how they played, you could feel it very early on and they put a lot of energy into the early stages and we had to figure out where the space was and how to attack them. I think we figured that out.

"Obviously Mikey scored his goal, but I think towards the end of the first half we had some really good passages, got in some really dangerous areas in their box. So I was pleased to come in 1-0 up.

"But again, the way they played, it was always going to be we needed to score the second goal and even at 2-0 they didn't stop."