Grayson rues poor first-half in PNE's defeat to Norwich

Simon Grayson reacts to a poor display from his Preston side.

The Lilywhites never recovered from arguably their worst 45 minutes of the season as they lost for the first time at Deepdale since the Boxing Day reverse against Leeds.

Graham Dorrans and Josh Murphy put the Canaries in command before Tommy Spurr pulled a goal back midway through the second half.

As North End pushed men forward Jack Maddison’s breakaway goal made sure of the points in stoppage time however.

“We started the game quite well in the first five minutes but after that we were a shadow of ourselves,” said Grayson.

“We didn’t have any energy about us.

“We didn’t stop the opposition from playing and they’ve got some very talented players that can hurt you.

“I kept the same players out for the start of the second half to see if I got a reaction and I did to be fair.

“We got them on the back foot, played a little bit further forward, had more runners and had more energy about us.

“Ultimately we couldn’t have done any worse than we did in the first half but we got the goal and you want to build off that.

“We had some good opportunities but you can’t give yourselves a mountain to climb like we did in the first half.”

AS IT HAPPENED: PNE 1-3 Norwich

MATCH REPORT: PNE 1-3 Norwich

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