Town goalkeeper Christian Walton admitted the Blues did not reach their usual levels during the 1-1 draw with Preston North End at Portman Road.

Jack Clarke struck a stoppage-time penalty to earn a share of the spoils after the visitors had taken a deserved second-half lead through Lewis Gibson.

As a result, Town have dropped to fourth in the Championship table and are now seven points adrift of the automatic promotion places with a game in hand on Coventry City and Middlesbrough.

Reflecting on the Blues’ seven-match winning run on home soil coming to an end, Walton felt the Lilywhites executed almost the perfect game plan in frustrating Town from the off.

“Some disappointing parts of the game,” he said. “For the first 70 minutes, we weren’t where we needed to be in the game.

“It’s tough, it’s the first time that Preston have played one striker all season so they’ve shown us the utmost respect. It’s a challenge then for us to go and break that down when there’s 11 bodies inside the frame of the goal at the end, it’s difficult.

“I think we showed good character towards the end to come back and were unlucky not to win it. There were a few decisions that could have gone our way at the end, but we can’t dwell on that now. It’s onto Tuesday and we’ll take the positives.

“We’re always working on that side of things, we know the challenge that it presents. If you go anywhere in the Premier League, it’s the same thing for the top teams, it’s difficult no matter who you are. It’s a challenge, one we need to take on and enjoy.

“We need to show our fire, a bit of fire in the belly is not a bad thing. I’ve played in teams like Preston today where you sit behind the ball for 90 minutes, that was their job and they did it.

“Everyone can get a little bit emotional when decisions aren’t going your way, but it’s making sure we’re fully focused on what the actual goal is.

“They [points] all matter, it’s not a defeat and sometimes they can feel like that when you’ve not won. Overall, it’s taking the positives out of that today and going into Tuesday because there were plenty of positives to take. We’ve just got to look ahead now.”

Preston had the better chances prior to their goal, with lone striker Daniel Jebbison regularly stretching the Blues backline and creating chances for his teammates.

Midfielders Ben Whiteman and Jordan Thompson both forced Walton into smart saves during a second half where the visitors were by far the more likely to break the deadlock.

Walton said: “We probably knew it was coming. It can be difficult but I thought we dealt with it fine at times and a lot could have been better at certain periods of the game. It’s shown us a lot of respect and a lot of teams do that here so we know the challenge that it presents.

“It’s just making sure that I'm ready for moments in the game. I’ve still had saves to make, it’s not like they don’t get any chances. Still being ready and knowing that something is going to happen in the game, it’s making sure I’m ready at all times.

“I’m at the other end of the pitch so I don’t really know how difficult it can be for those guys, they obviously do everything they can. Sometimes getting it over the line is the difficult part.”

Despite the late penalty, there was still time for the Blues to have no fewer than three more shouts for a spot kick in the eighth minute of additional time.

Referee John Busby appeared reluctant to point to the spot for the second time in only a matter of minutes, though, as Town ran out of time to find a winning goal.

On the appeals, Walton said: “There was talk of it, I couldn’t really see too much. We can’t rely on that in the game, we know individually we need to be better.

“The goal they scored is not good enough on our part, something that we work really hard on is set plays. Probably the only way they were going to take the lead was from a set play and they did that, and it’s disappointing. We need to knuckle down on that.”

The penalty that was awarded allowed Clarke to net his 12th goal of the campaign and extend his lead as the Blues’ leading goalscorer this season.

“He’s shown a lot of confidence and belief there,” Walton added. “He got us back in the game with that. Really good for him and he’s doing really well.”

Photo: TWTD