Four talking points from Preston's defeat to Cardiff City

Preston North End were beaten 1-0 by Cardiff City at Deepdale on Sunday, Sheyi Ojo’s breakaway goal in the second half the difference.

The defeat leaves North End in the bottom half of the table having won once in their opening five games of the campaign.

TOM SANDELLS has a look at four talking points from the game at Deepdale.

1. Lacking the cutting edge.

Not the first or last time this point is being made, but PNE once again needed to carry some sort of goal threat.

It felt like they could have played another 90 and still not found the back of the net.

The best chance of the game fell to Jayden Stockley who couldn’t beat Alex Smithies from six yards out, just minutes from time.

There are rare chances for the forwards to strike at goal with their feet and even rarer to find themselves with space.

Ojo found himself with room to run into on the break, could compose himself and smashed the ball home, a luxury that North End’s forwards don’t seem to get. Emil Riis came off the bench and looked like he could be a handful, but was not presented with a chance at goal, but there is still time for that.

2. Weak moment defensively.

The break that saw Cardiff take all three points had two obvious moments of weakness from a PNE backline that had stood strong for 52 minutes.

Patrick Bauer stepped forward and lost out and Andrew Hughes’ tackle wasn’t strong enough and Kieffer Moore was able to break.

It left the home side exposed and the Bluebirds with four on two.

Rudd could do nothing about the finish but without goals at the other end, it puts more pressure and onus on keeping them out.

Avoidable goals add to the frustration that starts further forward.

3. More to come.

There’s clearly more to come from PNE, as shown at Brentford last time out.

Whether there is tweaking that needs to be done to find the right formula is Alex Neil’s problem but his side have already shown this season what they are capable of.

Consistency has largely been the issue in his time at Deepdale and an unchanged side didn’t live up to the billing against Cardiff.

4. A quick turnaround.

Thankfully for PNE there is a chance just around the corner to put things right.

The Lilywhites travel to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday as the games start coming thick and fast.

It means that Sunday’s result can quickly be put behind them and the focus on winning games and getting momentum.

North End are a tough side to stop when in form and with momentum behind them, things could quickly change if they can find their rhythm some time soon.