Preston North End lacked confidence and belief in their 2-0 defeat to Swansea says PNE boss Darren Ferguson.
Ferguson was speaking to the press after watched his side put in a disappointing performance against the Swans in a game in which North End never really go started.
"It's always a difficult place to come at the best of times," Ferguson said after the defeat at The Liberty Stadium.
"They are a very good football team, we knew that before we came and obviously we were a bit short on confidence after Tuesday night's defeat.
"We simply didn't keep the ball well enough in the first half, as a back four we kept giving it back to them and they made it more difficult for us when they scored the free kick, but that's the way Swansea play and you know at times that they are going to have a lot of possession, especially at home. We've seen the videos of them and you've just got to try and frustrate them if you can. It's a disappointing result."
North End handed full debuts to Paul Coutts and Keith Treacy and they lined up in a 4-3-3 formation which Ferguson explained was to combat Swansea's similar formation.
He said: "We matched them up, it was a simple equation, we played against them all over the pitch apart from their spare man who was a centre-half and our spare man who was the centre-half. They used their spare man a bit better than we did, there was an injury at the time.
"I can't question the lads in terms of their commitment and effort, Swansea are a confident team at the moment and confidence is a massive thing in football. They have got the belief and the confidence to play the way they wanted to play and they do it well."
Preston now have a big week ahead of them with two home matches including the big Lancashire derby against Blackpool. The Preston boss will be hoping to restore confidence to his side ahead of those crucial Championship affairs.
"They have got to believe in themselves, it's important. We have got two home games coming up now, two big games, Sheffield United and then the derby against Blackpool. We can only do it ourselves, we can't feel sorry for ourselves, nobody else is going to do it for us. We have got to stick together and maybe one lucky break going our way will get us going again.
"The effort was there, we kept going. Sometimes in the first half we were taking that one touch too many, not knowing what we were going to do when we get the ball. The way Swansea pressed the ball when we had it meant that we gave it back to them a lot."
Coutts was one of the positives of the afternoon, the former Peterborough man showing some good touches and plenty of forward runs in his first game for the club: "We told the lads to get him on it as much as we possibly could, he's a good footballer. It's a work in progress, I want my teams to play a certain way. The way Swansea play and pass it around is something we should maybe aspire to.
"It was going fine until Tuesday, that was a big blow to us, to lose in the manner which we did. We knew the fixture today was going to be an extremely difficult game and I think from the start Swansea were on the front foot and we just couldn't get out as a team, we didn't keep the ball well enough.
"It takes time, when Paulo first came in he followed on from Roberto and he struggled a little bit at the start of the season. I'm not saying that we want to play exactly the same as Swansea at all, but I want to play football and play football in the right areas. It might take time but we will get there."
