Jack Whatmough is confident he and his Preston North End teammates can quickly bounce back from the disappointment of losing to Birmingham City.
PNE arguably created the better openings in the first half at St Andrew’s, and manager Ryan Lowe was frustrated with final-third decision making from the likes of captain on the day, Robbie Brady, and Mads Frøkjær.
The game was won, though, in the 68th minute by Jay Stansfield, who charged through on goal to slot home after an unfortunate slip from Liam Lindsay on the halfway line.
Jack said: “It’s tough to take, personally and collectively as a group. Results went our way so that’s a positive to take, but I think in games that are scrappy we normally come out on the better side of the result and today we didn’t.
“It’s time to regroup and not get too down. We’ve had great results recently and we look to Saturday now to put it right.
“They’re fighting to stay in the division and we’re pushing for Play-Offs. They’re always banana skin games and that’s what it was today.
“We’ve come out on the wrong side of the result but with the group that we’ve got we’ll bounce back and try and put it right on Saturday.”
North End had the opportunity at St Andrew’s to close the gap between themselves and the Play-Off spots, due to Norwich City’s lunchtime defeat.
With seven games to go and ambitions of breaking into that top six, Jack admitted it was “really frustrating” to not take advantage of results elsewhere going in their favour.
On the top six, Jack said: “I think as a group we’ve all got a goal that we’re looking to get to and I think at the club everyone wants that.
“For us we’re disappointed that we didn’t take advantage of what could have been a really good day.
“We’ve got to regroup and go again now and put things right on Saturday.”
PNE were backed by almost 1,400 supporters on the day in the Midlands, and there will be another big following heading down to Watford on Saturday for Gentry Day.
Jack said: “It’s disappointing to send them home with nothing but we really appreciate that they’ve come down and I hope they had a good Easter.
“Obviously it’s not a great result today for them, but hopefully we can put it right for them.”
