Wes Hoolahan's failure from the penalty spot cost the Canaries two vital points, although with both Swansea and Nottingham Forest losing, they still moved up a place to fourth in the Championship with 60 points.
The home side had dominated the first-half without taking the lead, but bottom of the table Preston opened the scoring through Chris Brown, who left Carrow Road for the Lancashire side, coming off the bench to haunt his old side. Preston's lead lasted just two minutes however, before Grant Holt netted in the 62nd minute. Despite six minutes of extra time the Canaries couldn't muster a late winning goal.
Paul Lambert, not surprisingly, had kept faith with the side that deservedly won at Barnsley last Saturday, as well as naming an unchanged bench.
While for the visitors, Phil Brown still looking for his first win in charge, excluded ex-Canary Darrel Russell from the squad. He was able to recall the on-loan defender Leon Cort, who wasn't able to play in last week's game against his parent Club, Burnley.
The Canaries started the first half brightly enough, kicking towards the Barclay Stand, but failed to turn territorial advantage into goals. However, there were signs in the first half that referee Craig Pawson was not having one of his better days and might make things difficult for Norwich.
Inside the opening few minutes he could have had his notebook out when Hoolahan was on the receiving end of tackles that should have seen Mr Pawson reaching for a yellow card.
HALF-TIME: City 0 Preston 0
The referee's reputation with the home fans went down even further an hour into the game, when he penalised Elliott Ward for getting his nose in the way of Chris Brown's swinging arm. It was clear from Brown's reaction that he was as surprised by the decision as was Ward, who was bleeding profusely.
To add insult to injury, the resulting free kick led to the Preston opener and with the Norwich defenders looking for an offside flag, brown hit the back of the net with a fierce angled drive that gave John Ruddy no chance. It was the kind of finish Brown failed to produce during his time with Norwich when had only one goal to his credit.
Within two minutes City drew level thanks to Grant Holt, whose record is in sharp contrast to that of Brown. He netted the equaliser when following up an Andrew Surman shot, which was too hot for Turner to hold.
Holt then appeared to be pushed over in the Preston penalty area but, true to form, Mr Pawson booked the City marksman instead of pointing to the spot.
When Darren Carter handled in the 72nd minute, Mr Pawson did award a penalty. Then came the indisputable turning point in the game when Hoolahan failed to convert the spot kick with his usual no-nonsense approach and instead floated his weak spot kick into the grateful arms of Iain Turner.
Why the Irishman did not blast the ball, instead of trying to chip it over the keeper, only he can say, but City fans will be hoping he does not try it again! Consequently, Hoolahan and Norwich had to settle for a point when it should have been three.
FULL-TIME: City 1 Preston 1