John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: A Gentry Day as miserable as the weather

Despite some early vocal backing by the dedicated followers who journeyed to Hull, the majority of them left the stadium feeling deflated.

The 2-1 reverse at the MKM Stadium meant that we have now only won one of our last 13 league games, which is our worst ever run since we were promoted back to The Championship in 2015.

This utterly abysmal statistic, in my opinion, is an indication of the huge amount of work needed to be done at this club in the summer.

There is no doubt now that our recent poor results – especially at Deepdale – have drawn us into an unnecessary relegation scrap, as one more point from these games would have been enough to see us limp over the line to safety.

That results elsewhere could mean we already have enough points to scramble clear of the dreaded drop is very much a blessing, and is a small crumb of comfort to be derived from what has turned out to be a miserable Easter for our long-suffering fans.

I thought the first half was an evenly contested one between two average sides at this level.

We reached half-time seemingly in control of our destiny with a one-goal advantage, courtesy of Lewis Gibson's first North End goal when he drove home a loose ball in the penalty area after Hull's defence had failed to clear a corner.

At this point our fans were in fine voice, implying with one chant that the home side were very poor.

Another of our ditties was an amusing take on one of the home side’s favourite chants of “being mauled by The Tigers” with our then- buoyant fans changing the words to “being mauled by the Preston.”

Unfortunately no mauling of the Tigers took place, as we failed to devour our prey in the second half.

Relegation-threatened Hull turned the game on its head by converting two penalties during the early part of the half.

I personally thought both penalties were very soft and could have been avoided, especially the first one which was awarded when there was only a very minimal contact.

We huffed and puffed a bit trying to chase the game but could not break down the home side, who dug deep and defended resolutely.

Towards the end of the game we had all our three centre-forwards on the pitch but agonisingly even this failed to produce an equalising goal.

The news that most of the teams below us were winning only served to increase my levels of anxiety.

As my heart rate increased, I started to think that my Easter Monday would have felt far more sedate if, instead of putting myself through such stressful mental torture, I had stayed in Preston and gone rolling my Easter eggs on Avenham Park.

Our upcoming home game with Plymouth is now massive and with the visitors scrapping for their lives, they will no doubt come to Deepdale with a vocal away following.

It would be nice if our fans followed the example of Hull's passionate supporters who, although they were no great shakes, were like their 12th man .

We could also do with some of our players to show the kind of passion displayed by Ched Evans when he was brought on for the game’s last 13 minutes.

His obvious desire and his wholehearted effort in giving everything for the cause gets my vote for man of the match, despite the short length of time he was on the pitch for.