Old Elton will be performing his only UK show of 2010 at Vicarage Road, a fact we were regularly reminded about throughout the afternoon via the big screen and public address system.

Watching him tinkling the ivories would probably have been preferable to the 90 minutes of football served up as far as the loyal 686 travelling North Enders were concerned.

This was poor fare from Alan Irvine's men, very poor in fact, and the manner of defeat was worse than at Scunthorpe and QPR.

Watford out-played, out-battled and out-thought PNE to the extent that the two-goal margin of victory could have been much greater.

The first-half was embarrassingly one-sided, with the lion's share of play in the direction of Andrew Lonergan's penalty area.

Both of the hosts' goals came in that opening period, the game effectively over as a contest just beyond the half-hour.

Irvine's verdict on it all was straight to the point, the Preston boss summing up what he'd seen from the men in all white as 'unacceptable'.

Returning skipper Callum Davidson admitted things had been 'terrible', and Jon Parkin didn't mince his words either.

The Beast said: "Unacceptable is the word that could probably be used.

"The first half was diabolical, in the second half we were just a little bit better than diabolical.

"I think too many of us had bad days at the same time, so we never really turned up.

"There are no positives at all which we could take from it.

"We have to have a good look at ourselves and start competing again.

"If we play like that against Newcastle in our next game then they'll get six."

Full story and PNE news in Monday's Lancashire Evening Post

Full story in Monday's Lancashire Evening Post

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