Jack King says he and his team-mates have let themselves down and they will be looking to bounce back on Monday against Shrewsbury Town.
Preston suffered defeat at the hands of Brentford who gained automatic promotion to the Championship following defeats for Leyton Orient and Rotherham.
But King was disappointed in more than just the result, stating that the players had let themselves down.
Speaking exclusively to PNE.Com following the full-time whistle, the defender said: “That was not good enough on our part.
“We have come to a team that are flying high in the league and we have got to be putting in a better performance than that.
“The lads are hurting, there is a way to lose and we have not produced the levels we have been producing all season.
“We feel like we have let ourselves down, we have let the fans down who have travelled down.
“Nobody is hurting more than the players, we will go back, train tomorrow and we will make sure we put it right for Monday.”
The Lilywhites were undone by a dubious penalty after Wright was adjudged to have fouled Bees youngster George Saville – footage showing that the Australian defender was not within half a yard of the midfielder when he went down and he didn’t appeal.
However up stepped Alan judge who sent Declan Rudd the wrong way.
The hosts were awarded another penalty in the second half, again Wright the alleged culprit for pulling down Clayton Donaldson in the area.
But this time Judge blazed well over the crossbar.
And King was less than impressed with the awarding of both spot kicks.
He continued: “The first one was never a penalty; their lad has even said on the pitch that he has dived, he has got back up, he said he didn’t appeal for it.
“The second one is a bit more contentious, but the first one was the game changer and it was never a penalty.
“It is tough to take, we weren’t at our best today, but we have limited them to fairly few chances.
“I think Declan Rudd has only had to make one save in the first half and they have hit the post in the second, so as badly as we did play, as average as our performance was, we still kept them fairly quiet.
“We need to do better than that and we need to take some good form into the Play-Offs now and make sure we put that right.”
A pitch invasion ensued following the full-time whistle by the jubilant Brentford fans and the party atmosphere is something King wants to experience for himself come May and the Play-Off Final.
“We have got to use what we witnessed today to try and drive ourselves on,” added King following the scenes in and around Griffin Park.
“This is what you are in the game for, you want promotions and you want your fans on the pitch at the end.
“Credit to them, they have done it, we have pushed them almost all the way this season, but we have let ourselves down at the last hurdle and we have got to dust ourselves off and go again.”
King was full of praise for the magnificent PNE turnout, with more than 1,650 North End fans in attendance at the match.
And he was disappointed that the players couldn’t send them home happy.
“The following was superb again today,” added the PNE No.22.
“They have followed us in numbers all season and full credit to them.
“The lads are just disappointed that we couldn’t put in a performance that the support warranted today.”