Ryan Lowe feels it was just the final bit of killer instinct missing in Preston North End’s 1-1 draw against Millwall.
PNE took the lead just three minutes in at Deepdale through Mads Frøkjær, and the hosts went on to create further chances, most notably through Duane Holmes.
It was Millwall who scored next, though, as Zian Flemming equalised on the half-hour mark with a smart finish from 20 yards.
From that point, North End created a few half chances but no real clearcut opportunities as they looked to find a winner in the second half.
“It could have been three [points] of course,” the gaffer said.
“We tried; we threw everything at it, especially in the last 20 minutes of the game.
“We made a lot of changes with more attacking players to get on the front foot and try to go and create some chances and get another goal.
“I thought in the first half we got off to a flyer. Duano has a great chance to go through and make it 2-0.
“They score and then they sort of drop back a little bit, but look on another day you find a little bit of luck and it goes your way and one ricochets off their defenders.
“But they defended solid and resolutely, and we just couldn’t find that killer instinct in the final third in the last 20 minutes or so."
Liam Millar and Milutin Osmajić were the first two changes made as the manager looked to turn the game in PNE’s favour.
Three more substitutions followed – including the long-awaited return of Ched Evans after seven months out – but a winner wasn’t to arrive.
Ryan said: “It got scrappy, and we knew it was going to get scrappy at some point.
“We had large parts of possession in the first half and then second half we knew they were going to drop in but still try and press us. We needed to open them up a little bit.
“There’s no complaints. I thought the lads were excellent.
“It was a 90% performance of what we asked them to do. That extra 10% might have got us the three points, but we can’t complain.
“I thought they were fantastic. It’s a point on the board. If you can’t win you certainly don’t lose after the week we had before the international break.
“It’s pleasing and nice to get an extra point on the board.”
