Ryan Lowe described the last-gasp goal his Preston North End side conceded in a 2-1 defeat to Swansea City as “heartbreaking”.
It looked as though PNE were all set to return to Lancashire with a point after Liam Millar had cancelled out Jamie Paterson’s opener with a superb individual goal.
That was until the 95th minute when Paterson popped up and slotted across goalkeeper Dai Cornell and found the far corner.
Asked how he was feeling, Ryan said: “Sick to be honest with you. I don’t know what to say to be honest. It’s tough at the minute.
“We know it’s not good enough. I thought the gameplan was working extremely well.
“We found ourselves getting the ball back, we were on the front foot, and then it was one moment of madness really [that lost us the game].
“We played a square pass when it’s bouncing or whatever else, and they put it in behind with 90 seconds to go. It’s heartbreaking.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m disappointed for the fans coming on a Friday night who are going to get home at four o’clock. I’m just disappointed.”
The sides went into the break level in scoring and in performance, with little between them in the opening half of the match.
Millar’s stunning strike in the 67th minute, after Paterson had scored on the hour mark, levelled proceedings and the Canadian later came extremely close to netting a replica finish, but goalkeeper Carl Rushworth tipped it wide.
North End then took a sucker punch in the fifth minute of stoppage-time when a loose ball in midfield was intercepted and Paterson benefited to earn three points for the hosts.
“We were fine,” said Ryan. “You come here away from home and we’d have taken a point, no problem.
“To go a goal down from the goal we did, I’m disappointed with because we need to get out. We can’t leave him unmarked in there.
“Then we get ourselves back in the game with a fantastic finish from Liam and we’re in the ascendency.
“We had some tired legs towards the end and we made some changes, but that shouldn’t affect us and it didn’t affect us.
“What did affect us is a genuine mistake of not passing the ball forward but passing sideways. You can’t do that and we’ve been punished.
“I can’t put it into perspective at the moment because it’s still raw, but I don’t know. Do we need a little bit of luck or do we need to be better in certain elements? Of course we do, we know that.
“Luck will find its own way. It’s heartbreaking because it feels like I’m letting everyone down and letting people down. That’s the last thing I want.
“I want to make sure I’m doing the right things. We did the right things for large parts of the game again, but not for it all so it’s frustrating and disappointing.”