Boss Joe Royle admitted that his Town side were well beaten by Preston despite controlling things early on. Preston struck twice just after the half hour mark and the Blues never recovered, conceding two more goals, one in each half.

Royle laid no blame at the feet of keeper Lewis Price: "It was a funny match. Our goalkeeper hasn't had a save to make but he still had to pick the ball out of the net four times.

"We passed it well in the first half without looking a goal threat, but Preston were always likely to cause problems down the middle and that's the way it turned out. At both ends of the pitch we were found wanting."

The Town boss hopes that new loan signing Jay McEveley can help to turn things around: "He has got a lot of experience for a young lad and he's a good athlete."

Defender Fabian Wilnis felt Town gifted the visitors their three first half goals: "We started off really well for the first half hour but then we got sloppy and just gave three goals away that should never have happened.

"We started to make them look very good, which they weren't. I can't remember the last time we collapsed like that at home, in fact, it's never happened.

"We've been hit with injuries and so we've been up against it, but that's football. The guys come in and do their best but there are days when it just doesn't happen and I guess today was one of those days; a bad day at the office.

"We looked the most likely side to score in the first half hour and if Jim's effort had gone in the whole outcome could have been very different.

"But to be fair to them they appeared to be hungrier than us and won more in the air up front. We didn't really create any clear-cut chances in the second half, but we'll learn from out mistakes and come back fighting."

Preston boss Billy Davies was unsurprisingly pleased with his side's three-point and four-goal haul: "It was a fantastic result and we fully deserved three points. We took our chances and played very well.

"I feel we've been playing well enough for a few weeks now. We've had a difficult start but there have been a lot of positives. I told the lads we just needed to keep doing what we've been doing."

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