Ryan Lowe is confident the 4-0 defeat against West Brom will prove to be just a blip.
After going unbeaten in the opening eight matches of the Sky Bet Championship season, Preston North End were beaten for the first time on Saturday by the Baggies.
Darnell Furlong gave the visitors the lead just five minutes in, and further goals from Alex Mowatt, Matt Phillips and Kyle Bartley created an emphatic scoreline.
Ryan said: “I don’t think we were at it from start to finish, but the lads have been terrific in the last eight games.
“Today was one of them games where we tried to do things that we weren’t used to doing or we haven’t been doing of late.
“Credit where credit’s due to West Brom, they were on the front foot and they came after us.
“[I was] disappointed with the first goal so early on. We were disjointed and out of shape, and we allowed the full back to get a strike away from 20 yards, which is a great strike.
“Then the second one kills us off a little bit where we can just put our foot through and get rid of it. As I said, it’s one of them days.
“Was 4-0 reflective? Probably not, but when you give teams of good quality opportunities to score they punish you and that’s what I’m disappointed about.
“But I can’t fault the lads; they’ve been fantastic all season. It’s a blip, we know that, it was going to happen at some point.
“Was 4-0 a different scoreline than I’d have liked if we were getting beat? Yeah of course because no one wants to concede four goals, but I’m hoping it’s a blip in the road.
“We’re still in a comfortable position and we’ve been terrific. It’s just disappointing how the goals have been conceded.”
It’s been a terrific start to the season for North End, having taken 20 points from nine matches played, and Ryan’s side still sit third in the table at this early stage.
With trips to the top two – Leicester City and Ipswich Town – coming up midweek, PNE will need to make sure they recover from the defeat quickly.
Ryan added: “We won’t take it too harshly and I won’t let the players take it too harshly.
“I want them to be disappointed like I am, but what can you do? It’s done. It’s three points – it’s not six points or nine points. It’s three points we’ve lost today.
“We’ve been terrific in the eight games before today, but we’ve got to get our heads up. We’ve got a fantastic game to go into at Leicester which are the games you want to play in, and Ipswich away.
“So we’ll travel next week, stay down there and we’ll do the right things and recover right. We’ll put the gameplan together for the boys, and I’m a big believer that when the lads follow the gameplan they get results.
“Today was an off day which we’re all disappointed with, and as I’ve said we have to move on. We can’t dwell on it too much.”