Ben Whiteman says Preston North End have spent time dissecting the previous two performances ahead of a trip to face West Bromwich Albion.
North End have suffered back-to-back defeats, against Queens Park Rangers and Huddersfield Town respectively, which have left PNE’s No.4 “bitterly disappointed”.
The team were straight into the training ground the morning after the loss to the Terriers, not just to go through their typical recovery sessions but to look back on the game.
Ben told iFollow PNE: “I think the past two results have been more about [looking at] where we can improve and what’s not acceptable, and the standards that we’ve set this season.
“The game [against West Brom] is coming tomorrow and we need to put that into practice and hopefully get a positive result.”
Consecutive defeats are, of course, disappointing at any stage of the season, but the current run has followed the fantastic display at Ewood Park which saw Ryan Lowe’s side come out 4-1 winners.
Ben was on the scoresheet that day in what was arguably the best performance of the season.
“It’s obviously massively disappointing,” added Ben.
“You look at that game and you want to go and kick on and, like I said before, the past two results have been bitterly disappointing and we can feel the emotion from that.
“Over the Christmas period now there’s going to be a lot of games coming thick and fast and we need to take the debriefs, work on the training ground and hopefully get a positive result.”
The West Brom game – against a side who have won six of their last eight – will mark the final game of 2022 for PNE.
In the calendar year, North End have taken 70 points from their 48 matches, compared to 57 from 46 games in 2021.
Ben said: “Obviously it’s been a positive year on the whole, but again we’re wanting to sort of kick on now.
“The past two games do leave a bittersweet taste in your mouth where you want that little bit of consistency to really cement your place in there but it wasn’t to be.
“Now we’re looking at the next game and wanting to get a positive result from that to see where that takes us.”
26-year-old Ben is not the first in the PNE ranks to talk about the need for consistency, citing the league table when talking of its importance.
“It’s massive,” he said. “You look at how congested the table is anyway, it’s a big thing in this league as you’ve seen and well know.
“It’s down to us to put in a performance first and hopefully that gets us the three points.
“The table’s probably the tightest it’s been for a long while. You look at the top two and they’re sort of going away now and it’s a big scramble in the middle of the league.
“We’re vying for them Play-Off positions, so we need to put some results together and hopefully we can do that.”