Ryan Lowe was left frustrated with the nature of the goals his Preston North End side conceded in the 2-1 defeat to Stoke City.
The visitors went ahead in the 64th minute through an Andrew Hughes own goal, but North End got themselves back in the game within four minutes via a header from substitute Milutin Osmajić.
With just three minutes left on the clock, though, the Potters snatched all three points as an attempted Ali McCann clearance rebounded off Luke McNally and went in off the post.
Ryan said: “I thought the first half was flat; I thought we cancelled each other out. They obviously came and changed shape and matched us up.
“We couldn’t get a foothold in the game. In the second half we changed things round and made sure our wing-backs were a little bit higher. We created a bit more space for each other and were on the front foot, but [we’ve conceded] a goal that we’ve been excellent at not doing.
“The ball comes across the six-yard box and we’re normally there to cut them out. They weren’t and it comes off Hughesy for an own goal.
“We find ourselves back in the game with a great header from Milly, well-worked, and then [we’re disappointed] to be done by a free-kick where we’ve got to defend the box properly and then we’ve got to clear it properly.
“It was a calamity of errors. The own goal and then the second goal for them. We need to do better in them moments and we didn’t today. We were flat and I don’t know why.
“We weren’t at the races, but I’ve just said to the group in there hopefully that’s a bit of a kick up the backside because we’ve been on a fantastic run of games, winning games and doing well.”
Because of the postponement of Wednesday’s away game against Southampton, North End had an unexpected free midweek, whereas the relegation-threatened Potters were at Elland Road facing Leeds United on Tuesday.
The gaffer therefore expected his side to look relatively fresh at Deepdale, however didn’t feel that was the case.
He said: “I said to the lads these are the ones who played Tuesday. We didn’t play; they played Tuesday. We had a free week so the freshness should have been with us.
“They’re fighting for their lives so they put their bodies on the line. We had a good moment when Milly just couldn’t sort his feet out, and Whitey’s [Ben Whiteman’s] gone through and Daniel [Iversen] has made a good save.
“We’ve had some good moments and opened some passages of play up and had some opportunities to score, but we’ve cost ourselves today because we haven’t defended our box properly.”
