Boss Graham Westley thought the team should have taken advantage of the first 20 minutes.
“The momentum of the game was truly with us, we were attacking the home following and it could have turned into a mountain of goals in the first half. But it didn’t happen and credit to the back four for keeping the clean sheet.”
“The players went very close to winning the game very well; if we got the first goal early on we could have scored two or three.
“We have to find that extra step and to be fair to the players they have taken the knocks and the injuries in their stride and they have not wanted to focus on them.
“At the moment we have got 12 unbeaten in 14 which is a steady record, it shows we are control of a lot of the games that we are playing, but we are not showing enough clinicality to win the game.
“It didn’t happen; there are some good players who need to get some confidence that you get from playing games and the team spreads into you when you are winning.
“We kept the tempo on top of them and the game on top of Bury and you did get the feeling that a player like Beavon would have really finished them off.
“Somebody turned to me from the dugout and said Stuart Beavon would have had a hat-trick in the first half with the chances that were falling our way.
“When you have a lot of players who haven’t being getting regular football they want to try and cement that shirt and they end up playing safe football. They want to stop making mistakes than trying to be the hero; you need players who can step up to the plate.
“The changes that we made didn’t make the impact like I thought they would, they were poor changes and we lost our way when the changes happened.
“It just shows what happens if you are not clinical. In the second half we ran out of steam, there were a lot of lads playing their first football for a while and it was always a danger having so many lads who have not been playing a lot of first team football and their match legs were not quite with them.
“We were dominant in the first half. We came out and took the game to them and created enough chances to win a couple of games, not just the game today.
Sharing his thoughts after the game, the manager said: “It would have been different if we scored in the first 20 minutes, we would have gone on to win the game and it would have felt more like Christmas, but we didn’t and it wasn’t to be.
The Lilywhites controlled the opening stages against Bury on Boxing Day in front of a large crowd at Deepdale, but were unable to find a breakthrough with a number of good opportunities missed.