Dave Seddon's verdict: Rotherham 2 Preston North End 1 - Lilywhites the authors of their own downfall in the South Yorkshire mist

It was more the manner of the reverse than the actual result which got the PNE manager’s back up.

For the first hour or so in the mist and gloom of the New York Stadium they were unrecognisable from the side which three days earlier had toppled leaders Reading.

Far too frequently the ball was given away, preventing them building any kind of rhythm to their play.

When Rotherham took a 53rd minute lead, it looked a forlorn hope that North End could find an equaliser.

But drag their way back into the game they did, with Ryan Ledson’s equaliser 10 minutes from time.

The joy was short-lived though, Neil’s men gifting the hosts their winner just six minutes later.

Even then there was still time for Jayden Stockley to put a header against the post as they chased parity for the second time.

Little wonder an expletive or two crept from Neil’s lips in summing-up the afternoon’s events in the press conference afterwards.

Often Neil will back his players to the hilt after defeat but this time he had to concede that the 90 minutes had been littered with too many poor displays.

The midfield copped it in particular, Neil critical of the number of poor passes.

That is how Rotherham’s winner originated, Brad Potts’ under hit square ball cut out by Florain Jozefzoon who motored forward from his own half to set up fellow sub Matt Crooks to score.

It really was a case of shooting themselves in the foot, North End having built up a bit of momentum before and after Ledson’s leveller.

However poor their play had been earlier, equalising at that relatively late stage should have ensured a point was taken back to Lancashire.

So ended a run of four wins in a row on their travels and the unbeaten away record.

That had formed the backbone of their season in the absence of any semblance of form at Deepdale.

This was always going to be a much different test to the one at Reading.

Rotherham played a direct, in-your-face type of game, and did it very well.

PNE limited the affect of it in terms of clear-cut chances created by the home side.

However, it seemed to knock them out of their stride when it came to getting on the ball and pushing forward.

Only once in the first half did the visitors show some of the quality done in their previous away days.

That came when Emil Riis got between two Millers defenders to win a big punt forward by Potts.

The Danish striker won it in the air, got to his own knock down and played a fine pass to put Daniel Johnson in on goal.

Johnson fired his shot far too close to keeper Viktor Johansson who saved with his legs.

Only later in the contest once Neil freshened things up with Tom Barkhuizen, Stockley and Paul Gallagher from the bench, did North End find more creativity.

They head into the international break in 14th position, six points behind sixth place and six ahead of 22nd.

The talking point of this latest block of games between the pauses for internationals, has been the contrasting home and away form.

With there being two matches at Deepdale immediately after the break, it is clear where the focus at Euxton has to be over the next fortnight.

Neil had kept an unchanged side and bench from Reading, that not a surprise bearing in mind the 3-0 win in Berkshire.

His Millers counterpart Paul Warne had responded to a 1-0 home defeat by making six changes, although a couple of those were enforced because of injury.

Rotherham weren’t shy in trying to find Freddie Ladapo up front with long passes, then play off him.

In fairness to Jordan Storey and Paul Huntington, they dealt well with the aerial stuff.

Storey in particular won plenty of headers – 20 over the course of the game.

But it was a high ball into the box which led to Preston falling behind eight minutes into the second half.

Daniel Barlaser pumped a free-kick from the right channel to the area beyond the far post where Michael Ihiekwe rose to head it back.

The ball fell to Richard Wood, the centre-half taking it on his chest before shooting past Declan Rudd from the corner of the six-yard box.

Barkhuizen and Stockley replaced Scott Sinclair and Riis just before the hour.

Sinclair had been quiet to say the least, Riis’ pace I felt might have been worth persevering with.

The two subs combined quite well, Barkhuizen running on to a Stockley flick which forced Johansson to race from his goal and knock the ball away – clattering into Barkhuizen which raised a shout of a penalty claim.

Midfielder Gallagher was the third introduction from the bench, coming on for Darnell Fisher. That saw Alan Browne move to right-back to accommodate Gallagher in the engine room.

It was Gallagher’s corner which led to PNE’s equaliser, his flag kick from the right headed out by Wood.

Ledson was first to it on the edge of the box, shifting the ball on to his right foot and drilling a shot into the bottom corner.

Buoyed by the goal, North End pushed forward looking for a second goal and that was their downfall.

Potts had the ball slightly to the right of centre and chose to play a square pass across to Joe Rafferty.

Jozefzoon intercepted and set off like a whippet, evading Rafferty’s crude attempt to bring him down.

Preston still had enough players covering but they got drawn towards Jozefzoon who played in the unmarked Crooks to score.

A second equaliser almost came PNE’s way, Gallagher’s inswinging cross from the left met by Stockley just ahead of the keeper. His header dropped goalwards but hit the base of the post.

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