Ryan Lowe felt his side nullified Watford and should have scored a couple of goals in the 0-0 draw at Vicarage Road.
On the club’s annual Gentry Day, more than 2,000 North End fans watched on as their side limited the Hornets to very little, while there were big chances at the other end.
Jack Whatmough headed wide in the fifth minute from a Robbie Brady corner, and at the end of the first half Andrew Hughes slammed wide from close range.
The best chance of the second period fell in the 69th minute to Will Keane, but his sweetly-struck volley went just wide.
Reflecting on the point, Ryan said: “It’s a great point. They’re a good team, in form and scoring lots of goals. We’ve nullified their strengths and we should have scored a couple of goals, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.
“The effort and determination was there. We were just lacking that little bit of quality.
“Hughesy’s had a great chance in the first half,. Jack Whatmough’s had one from a set play and it’s just hit his shoulder. If he gets connection with that it goes in on target and then Keano’s had one in the second half.
“We got to the top end of the pitch comfortably with balls in behind which was the name of the game today and we nullified them who are a good team.”
The North End fans were in fine voice all day long on one of the most important days on the calendar, as they remember everyone connected with the club who we’ve lost.
At the end of the game, as the players and manager went over to thank the fans, Ryan gathered his squad to pose for a photo in front of the travelling faithful.
He said: “I wanted to make it a special day by winning and that wasn’t the case. That picture is going to go down in history just because of the amount of fans that were here.
“It’s special moments for people who are not with us anymore. Long may that picture live because I think it was a nice touch.
“We got the fans in behind with all their hats up, that was our thank you to them because they’ve travelled in their numbers today.
“We’re disappointed we couldn’t get the three points but I think they’ll be proud of the performance of the lads.”
Results elsewhere meant the gap to the Play-Offs now stands at seven points ahead of a double header at Deepdale against Huddersfield Town and Norwich City, with the latter currently sat sixth.
“Next week is the biggest week of the season,” the gaffer admitted. “We need to try and take maximum points.
“I know teams have got to play each other and I know results have crept up today and teams have won which is fine. All we can do is worry about ourselves.
“Next week is going to be the biggest week of the season. We’re still in the mix. If we want to try and creep in there and stay in and around it we’ve got to take maximum points next week and that’s got to be the aim.
“It’s about what we do next week. We’ll hopefully have a few bodies back and have a right good go at it and we need everyone behind us to do that.”
