Ryan Lowe felt Preston North End were “flat” in their home defeat to Queens Park Rangers.
North End went in search of a fifth victory in six Championship games, but were beaten thanks to Jimmy Dunne’s goal in the second half.
Ben Woodburn and Brad Potts had the best of the chances for PNE, however the manager was looking for much more from his team overall.
Speaking to iFollow after the loss, Ryan said: “I’m very frustrated with the game.
“I thought there was a lack of quality from both sides, I must say.
“There was no real good passages of play. I think they went long, and we went long quite a bit.
“We were trying to go over them or round them. They were compact and I thought the game was just going to be 0-0 really.
“They missed a couple of chances, so did we, but then to be done from a corner where we’ve just got a bit of a skim on the header and it just falls to the lad and hits him, I think it’s frustrating all round really.
“After last week’s performance [in the 4-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers], we knew we were never going to get another one of them performances, but what I said to the group was ‘you’ve set the standards last week to go again’, and I felt it was flat all round really.
“I’m disappointed we’ve conceded a goal, and if you can’t win a game, try not to lose it.”
Prior to QPR breaking the deadlock, PNE hadn’t created too much in the way of clearcut chances, but the best of the opportunities fell to Woodburn on 64 minutes.
A clever Ched Evans flick opened up the chance for the Welsh midfielder, who saw his effort saved by Seny Dieng, before Brad Potts volleyed an effort inches wide in the closing stages of the game.
Ryan said: “I said to the group at half-time we needed to raise it a little bit – 25 per cent or something.
“Even whether it was the passes, the pass appreciation, the quality of pass, the shot selection, the cross selection – we just needed to up it that little bit.
“We did do that after they scored but sometimes that’s too late, isn’t it?
“We kept going until the end. Pottsy’s had a fantastic chance and, before that, Ben Woodburn’s had a good chance where the ‘keeper makes a good save.
“There were one or two ricochets across the box, one or two corners where we could do a bit better, but it was just a lack of quality.”
It’s eight days until PNE will return to Championship action, when Huddersfield Town come to Deepdale on Boxing Day.
That gives some of the injured players who have missed the past two matches some time to recover from their respective issues ahead of a potential involvement.
“Hopefully we’ll get a couple back,” added Ryan. “Maybe we’ll have Ali [McCann] and Emil [Riis] potentially back for next week. Them two were not far off, hopefully Browney [Alan Browne] and maybe Hughesy [Andrew Hughes].
“I didn’t use it as an excuse last week when we won in terms of the squad and the depth we’ve got, and I’m not going to use it again because the youngsters are there for a reason.
“They’re there on merit because they’ve been performing, but if we can get a little bit more back that can give us a little more from the bench then we’ll be happy.”
You can watch Ryan's full interview above on iFollow PNE.