Darren Ferguson has admitted that he is disappointed to have left Bramall Lane empty handed after North End were beaten 1-0 against Sheffield United.
A superb long range effort by Jean Calve in the second half was enough to give Gary Speed's men all three points but Ferguson believes that the outcome of the game was extremely harsh on his players.
Speaking to pne.com, Ferguson said:
"We are very disappointed, the dressing room is very quiet. I feel for the lads, it is a game that we at least deserved to get a point out of. They didn't really give us any problems at any time, we certainly gave them problems.
"We had chances, hitting the bar early doors so it is a disappointing result."
North End started the game brightly with Keith Treacy seeing his free kick hit the frame of the goal in just the second minute.
Ferguson believes that the Lilywhites were completely in control but will rue not being able to get a first half goal. Ferguson said:
"We obviously have to come to places like this and we knew that with it being Gary Speed's first game at home, they would be up for it. I felt that we started the game really well, we got control of the game early doors and I thought that we were comfortable.
"There was just that goal missing going into half time. Obviously if we go ahead in the game, we have got players who can hurt teams on the counter attack, it just wasn't to be.
"Second half it was very very tight, they have scored an absolutely unbelievable goal to win the game and then we had chances and Parky should have had a penalty. I will take a lot of positives from the game though."
Preston displayed an encouraging defensive display but Ferguson wants to see his side take more of their chances.
"When you come to places like this and only concede two shots on goal then it says a lot," The North End boss said.
"My only criticism, and I'm not one for criticising, was that the chances that we are having, someone has got to stick one of them away.
"We have had so many chances in the games that we have played and the ratio of the chances that we are taking is nowhere near good enough."
Despite not taking anything from the game, Ferguson has seen lots of improvement from his side compared to Swansea two weeks ago and has drawn many positives from the performance. Ferguson said:
"All fans, as will everyone connected to the club will be disappointed with the result but we don't want to keep saying that we are disappointed not to get the result, that is a bad habit to pick up.
"I'm sure that the fans will be disappointed like me but take a lot of positives out of it. Generally, the really good teams don't tend to lose two on the bounce, we have done that already with Donny and Swansea, but there has definitely been an improvement since the Swansea game.
"Defensively we were very tight, I felt that David Gray did a very good job and I didn't see us losing, certainly."
The transfer window closes on Tuesday evening and Ferguson is hoping to bring one more player to Deepdale before the deadline passes. Ferguson said:
"There is one player that I would like in but we will have to wait and see. I will speak to the chairman and I will see where we are at with that."
