PNE.Com speaks to skipper John Mousinho following the home defeat against Crewe
“I think we’re going to have to give them something going into the game as well as something during the game. We can’t show up on Boxing Day without three significantly improved performances.”
“It’s going to have to be something pretty special. At the moment we’re a long way off it so we’ve got those three games in a week then we’ll be coming back to Deepdale.
“It’s not good enough. We have games coming thick and fast coming over Christmas. We’ve now got three away games in a week and we’re going to have to produce something a lot better than that.
“We have to make it up to the fans by giving them a late Christmas present in our next home game on Boxing Day. We’re 14th in the league. Preston North End 14th in League One speaks for itself.
“You go away from home and lose and you make excuses about being away from home but when you play at home there is nothing you can do about it. It just comes down to your performance,” Mousinho continued.
“At the moment though we are just crumbling. We crumbled under whatever it was today. I don’t even think there was too much pressure coming on us in the first place. We’re getting good support from the fans so it is really disappointing.
“We talk about ourselves as a team that really does want to push on and I don’t think there is anything unreasonable about that.
“You’re no longer having to live up to quite as high expectations, but they are still not expectations that are beyond us. They are expectations that we readily accept and we take them board all day.
“It’s hard to put your finger on why we’re been under-performing at home. Maybe there’s a little less pressure when we play away,” the North End captain said.
North End have struggled at home in recent months and while unable to provide an explanation, Mousinho was insistent that, not only must the Lilywhites perform much better in their next home game against Bury on Boxing Day, but they also need to make it up to the fans by delivering the goods in their next three away games heading into that fixture.
“I don’t think that had anything to do with the performance that we put in. They didn’t out-do us tactically, I just think that they won a lot of the individual battles out there. We nicked the late goal but if we had ended up losing 3-0 we couldn’t have had any complaints really.”
“It wasn’t a surprise to see them line up with five at the back. As soon as we saw the team-sheet we saw the personnel that they had. Our game plan anyway had been built around something that was similar.
Mousinho added: “Then maybe we had a bit of a go and had a couple of clear-cut chances that we didn’t put away. I don’t think there will be too many disagreements between the players, manager or fans about how we performed.
“In terms of our reaction coming out in the second half we just didn’t produce it. We didn’t produce until we went 3-0 down.
“As the game progressed their dominance started to show. They got the first goal and without us reacting too much in the first half. We really let them get on top of the game.
“If you look at the ninety minutes and break it down, we started well in the first 15 minutes,” said Mousinho. “We had some good passages of possession and created a few half chances. Once we didn’t get the goal we let them get far too much grip on the game, especially in the midfield.
The Preston skipper was under no illusions that the performance was not good enough and that Graham Westley’s side could have no excuses about the result, as he gave a frank assessment on North End’s disappointing display.
North End dominated the first 20 minutes of the match but failed to find the breakthrough as Crewe slowly began to take control of the proceedings, finding themselves 3-0 up shortly after the interval until Paul Huntington pulled a goal back late on.
Preston North End captain John Mousinho was left disappointed by the manner in which the Lilywhites fell to a disappointing 3-1 defeat against Crewe Alexandra.
“It’s going to have to be something pretty special. At the moment we’re a long way off it so we’ve got those three games in a week then we’ll be coming back to Deepdale.
“It’s not good enough. We have games coming thick and fast coming over Christmas. We’ve now got three away games in a week and we’re going to have to produce something a lot better than that.
“We have to make it up to the fans by giving them a late Christmas present in our next home game on Boxing Day. We’re 14th in the league. Preston North End 14th in League One speaks for itself.
“You go away from home and lose and you make excuses about being away from home but when you play at home there is nothing you can do about it. It just comes down to your performance,” Mousinho continued.
“At the moment though we are just crumbling. We crumbled under whatever it was today. I don’t even think there was too much pressure coming on us in the first place. We’re getting good support from the fans so it is really disappointing.
“We talk about ourselves as a team that really does want to push on and I don’t think there is anything unreasonable about that.
“You’re no longer having to live up to quite as high expectations, but they are still not expectations that are beyond us. They are expectations that we readily accept and we take them board all day.
“It’s hard to put your finger on why we’re been under-performing at home. Maybe there’s a little less pressure when we play away,” the North End captain said.
North End have struggled at home in recent months and while unable to provide an explanation, Mousinho was insistent that, not only must the Lilywhites perform much better in their next home game against Bury on Boxing Day, but they also need to make it up to the fans by delivering the goods in their next three away games heading into that fixture.
“I don’t think that had anything to do with the performance that we put in. They didn’t out-do us tactically, I just think that they won a lot of the individual battles out there. We nicked the late goal but if we had ended up losing 3-0 we couldn’t have had any complaints really.”
“It wasn’t a surprise to see them line up with five at the back. As soon as we saw the team-sheet we saw the personnel that they had. Our game plan anyway had been built around something that was similar.
Mousinho added: “Then maybe we had a bit of a go and had a couple of clear-cut chances that we didn’t put away. I don’t think there will be too many disagreements between the players, manager or fans about how we performed.
“In terms of our reaction coming out in the second half we just didn’t produce it. We didn’t produce until we went 3-0 down.
“As the game progressed their dominance started to show. They got the first goal and without us reacting too much in the first half. We really let them get on top of the game.
“If you look at the ninety minutes and break it down, we started well in the first 15 minutes,” said Mousinho. “We had some good passages of possession and created a few half chances. Once we didn’t get the goal we let them get far too much grip on the game, especially in the midfield.
The Preston skipper was under no illusions that the performance was not good enough and that Graham Westley’s side could have no excuses about the result, as he gave a frank assessment on North End’s disappointing display.
North End dominated the first 20 minutes of the match but failed to find the breakthrough as Crewe slowly began to take control of the proceedings, finding themselves 3-0 up shortly after the interval until Paul Huntington pulled a goal back late on.
Preston North End captain John Mousinho was left disappointed by the manner in which the Lilywhites fell to a disappointing 3-1 defeat against Crewe Alexandra.