Manager Darren Ferguson was extremely frustrated after experiencing a bout of déjà vu against Neil Warnock's Queens Park Rangers, losing a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 for the second game in succession.
"It is a case of déjà vu I think," said the gaffer. "Sheffield Wednesday two up; Forest three up - we managed to survive that one - I don't know what it is about us, whether it is getting into the players' heads?
"We lose a goal straight after going 2-0 up and even at 2-1 you're thinking it is comfortable, but then we lost another and, to be honest, it could have been a third or fourth and Lonners, at times, kept us in it.
"Key moments in the game, them scoring straight after we went two up, Mellor missing a great chance at 2-1, but it was a disappointing result and performance.
"We've had some good performances of late, but today I felt the atmosphere might have been a little flatter and it turned out that way and it was a bit low tempo and flat to begin the game. We went ahead and to go two had you think you will go on and win the game, but it didn't turn out that way and it is happening too many times.
"You can't play well in every game and I said to the players before the game that I wanted a good performance and if we didn't get that I wanted the win; it was a must win game for me and at 2-0 you think you will go on and win it and whether it is becoming a psychological thing I don't know, but it is not good enough.
"For their goal Taraabt's been allowed to bring the ball out of the air when he should be tackled and he caused us problems, but we'd talked about how he plays in between and we switched off."
The manager has talked at length about concentration in recent weeks and again he felt it was lacking: "We lost on composure and it took us 25 minutes to get it back after conceding a goal; which shouldn't be the case.
"In football things don't always go your way, it was a really scrappy affair and it was one of those days when you have to roll your sleeves up, get the win and go home, but they were poor goals to concede, the timing of the goals was poor and we are just shooting ourselves in the foot.
"The fans will be disappointed because they saw another lead slip away, but we have to get on with it. It may be a mental thing we need to tackle. They should feel both disappointed and angry because it was a bad result. It was an opportunity to get into the top half of the league. I want to finish in the top ten - the Play-Offs have gone - but I want to finish as high as we possibly can. We have to be realistic, we are still not safe. We can't just see this season out and today wasn't really good enough."
Ferguson has talked about needing goals from all over the pitch and on the day it was his full backs who grabbed the goals: "Billy got a knock down from a corner, Elliott Ward found him and he's smashed it in; Callum's taken a fantastic penalty and there's no chance of the keeper stopping that.
"People probably look at it and see that we are scoring goals, but we're conceding goals and for whatever reason that's happening. We have to cut out the lapses of concentration in the game because today we should again be taking three points out of here. We have to take responsibility on the pitch; it's a disappointing day again.
"We are giving too many points away, I am not happy with that. If you look at the draws we've had at home; today, Sheffield Wednesday, Doncaster, Blackpool there is eight points and all of a sudden we are in a different position. We need to have this place as a fortress and generally Preston's record at home is good."
The manager did have positive news with the fact that other than his long term injury misses - Nicholson and Parry - he expects a fully fit squad for the visit of Watford next Saturday.
"Paul [Coutts] was close to being available today and he'll be fit for Saturday, as will Tom Williams so we have plenty of options."
