It was Preston at their Sunday worst not best against Cardiff, says PNE fan John Smith

In general it was an uninspiring display ending in a single goal defeat.

In a first half between two evenly matched sides neither keeper was severely tested and although we played some nice football we did not look like scoring.

In the Championship, you sometimes need something special to unlock the opposition’s defence with games often being like a game of chess with the first goal often being the most important one in terms of opening the game up.

As I have said numerous times before if you don’t score in a game the best you can hope for is a 0-0 draw and once Cardiff had scored with a classic counter attack early on in the second half, we were in the familiar position of chasing the game.

The fact we have now not scored at home in our last four league and cup games is alarming and even though Alex Neil put on the lively looking Emil Riss, Tom Barkhuizen and Jayden Stockley in a bid to change this unwanted statistic, we never came remotely close to penetrating the away side’s well organised defence apart from when the keeper fumbled an injury time cross.

Cardiff are a decent side who made the play offs last season but in this game,the Welsh Dragons were hardly breathing fire with their goal coming from their only shot on target in a second half in which keeper Declan Rudd would have had time to do the Sunday Times crossword had one been available at the back of his goal.

However the worrying thing for me was that we did not seem to have any plan B and despite the substitutions our attack still had no lead in its pencil to write their names on the scoresheet.

On the day that season ticket holders should have returned to Deepdale many would have been heading for the exit doors long before the referee blew his whistle to end this drab affair.