Ryan Lowe described his side’s performance in the 4-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers as the worst since he took over.
The visitors scored two goals inside the opening 12 minutes of the game, before Alan Browne pulled one back, but Rovers scored twice more to earn the three points at Deepdale.
Asked about his side’s performance, Ryan Lowe said: “Not very good, I must say. I thought we had a good start the first ten minutes, I turned round to the bench and said we’d started well.
“But then to give the goals away we’ve given away again, you can’t give any team a three-goal lead, no chance.
“We claw one back at 2-1 and you’re thinking okay, but then we give another sloppy goal away.
“Disappointed in them, they’ve been great for us since we’ve come through the door, but I’ve got to say that was the worst performance in terms of we just gave up in so many large parts.
“We couldn’t handle the pressure from them, they got about us and they made it into a derby, we didn’t.
“It was nowhere near the derby we’d had against Blackpool, it was as if it was just too easy and that’s what I’m disappointed about.”
Ryan started with his favoured 3-5-2 formation, but brought left wing back Greg Cunningham off at half-time for Sean Maguire, switching to a 4-3-3 as his side looked to get back into the game.
That’s a decision the manager doesn’t want to be forced into often, though.
He added: “We need to look at ourselves and the players need to look at themselves, and see where we get better because one thing I will say is I don’t want to keep changing shape.
“It’s not my shape a 4-3-3 and what I will do is I won’t change shape, I’ll change personnel, it’s as simple as that and that’s what we’ve got to get our heads round quick.
“The holidays are coming up quick but I’ve said to the boys in there don’t expect any early holidays if you don’t have a good end to the season.
“They’re contracted to the football club until 31st June and probably a month after that with severance, that’s the lads that are out of contact.
“I can keep them around, that’s no problem, it’s over to them. I’ll reward success, I don’t reward failure.
“They’ll have a day off tomorrow, which I’m a bit gutted about giving them, but I want them to look at themselves in the mirror.
"I want them to come back into work on Wednesday morning and show a positive attitude to go and win a game of football on Saturday.”