Tuesday's shock 2-0 reverse to strugglers Swansea City saw North End slump to their third successive loss and left manager Alan Irvine fuming at the manner of Preston's defeat.

It means North End have leaked eight goals in a hat-trick of defeats to Wolves, Burnley and Swansea.

"We are all disappointed because we've had a blip after a fantastic start, but there is no crisis here," said Shaw.

"It isn't a crisis, just like it wasn't a phenomenal success when we went top of the Championship last month.

"I think we have to try and put things into perspective, because on New Year's Day we were bottom of the Championship and fighting to stay in this league.

"Alan Irvine did a terrific job keeping us in this division and continues to do a terrific job in building the club again.

"He is building for the future and, like the rest of the teams in this division, you are going to suffer setbacks along the way.

"Our defeat at Turf Moor was a setback, and all of a sudden people are talking about Burnley and they are firmly in the spotlight.

"That's fine, but then you look at the table today...Burnley are one point in front of us."

Shaw added: "Look at Wolves as an example of how fortunes can change.

"Mick McCarthy was getting booed by his own fans at Molineux last season when they didn't make the play-offs.

"But he was rebuilding and reshaping the club and that's what Alan Irvine is doing here. I don't think we could argue with the result against Wolves, but suddenly McCarthy has found a winning formula andthey look an extremely strong side.

"Every manager needs precious time to do that and Alan will go on improving the team.

"This time last year we had nine points from the same number of games, but we are five points ahead of that tally and that's a positive because we've a good founadtion stone to build on.

"I think if we'd have beaten Swansea everybody would be buzzing, but maybe we've got to have a look at the bigger picture sometimes.

"Traditionally we've never started a season well and we've just had a poor couple of weeks.

"What we have to do is to stick together and put all our efforts into getting a result at Watford on Saturday."

Full story in Thursday's Lancashire Evening Post.