Alan Irvine was again unhappy at his side's defending after Palace came from behind to put a dent in North End's Play-Off hopes. Speaking after the 2-1 reversal the boss felt his side should have capitalised on taking the lead for only the third time on the road this season.

"For 30 minutes we were in a great position," said Alan. "We were playing in a way that we were perfectly comfortable with. We got ourselves in front and I was feeling very comfortable on the sidelines.

"Unfortunately we then had a mad two minutes when we didn't defend as we needed to and it cost us two goals and those turned out to be the crucial goals. We didn't defend as we should have done and you can't afford to make those mistakes in any game at this level. They were two poor goals for us to concede; goals we can do something about. They are goals that we shouldn't be conceding.

"We and huffed and puffed a bit in the second half, without having really created a great deal.

"We had one very good opportunity when a great cross from Ross Wallace was met by Simon Whaley. My first impression was that Simon should have gone for goal himself, but he chose to square it and that's his decision. Unfortunately it was just slightly behind Billy and he wasn't able to get a shot like he did in the first half.

"We were hoping to get something coming here today; we haven't done and now we have to get ourselves right for Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night."

Alan was down to his final 14 available outfield players and the defeat was further compounded with the loss of Callum Davidson late in the game, which makes him a doubt for Tuesday's home clash with the Owls.

"Callum was feeling his hamstring and we had already put on our three substitutes at that time. That is fairly typical of our injury record throughout this season that we have ended up having to stretch a very thin squad even further.

"It wasn't tactical to put him up front, if I was going to put a defender up there I would put a bigger one than Callum up there, it simply a case of him staying on the pitch and trying to occupy a defender. I don't know how he'll be for Tuesday night, but at the moment it isn't looking good, but at least I'll have the luxury of having two players back - I'll have a big squad to pick from!"

Late in the game the North End players were in unison screaming for a penalty after a cross into the box seemed to be handled by an Eagles defender, but Alan was not using that as an excuse for not collecting anything from the long trip south.

"I have not seen it again yet, but I will have a look at it and see, but at first I didn't think there was anything in it. I am not one to hide behind referee's decisions - we won't be using that as an excuse."

Billy Jones was on the scoresheet for North End after slotting into the midfield, with McKenna and Chaplow both unavailable, and the manager was pleased with the England U21 international's contribution.

"Everybody know that it is not Billy's favourite position and it is not where I would choose to play him either, in normal circumstances, but I chose him for it today, just as I had when we were badly short in a couple of early games and once again I can't fault him.

"He did very well during the game, popped up with one goal and nearly scored again. Bill Jones is certainly able to play in that position even if it is not the preferred position for him or me."

The team remained in sixth spot in the Coca-Cola Championship, despite the defeat, and Irvine admitted that the total for making the Play-Offs seemed to be falling every week.

"It's a very tight division and I think it will go right to the end both at the top end of the table and the bottom end of the table.

"If you'd have asked me a month ago how many points it was going to take to get in the Play-Offs I would have said it was going be a pretty high total in comparison to previous seasons; but a lot of the teams have lost a lot of points around us, so I think that total is coming down every week. The last five years it has ranged from 70 to 75 points and it will probably be somewhere within there.

"We have five games at home and it's a big ask to win five games at home, so we would have to pick up some points on the road I would think."