John Smith's PNE fans' panel verdict: First-half show something to build upon

The 4-0 defeat we suffered at Chelsea was something more or less close to what I realistically had expected.

After reading that our Premier League opponents supposedly had an injury crisis with 10 players unavailable, it did not change my opinion.

In fact I thought that the result would still go in their favour, even if they had to make up their numbers by fielding a couple of the famous ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ from their nearby community residence in their starting line-up.

With our clean sheets this season having been almost as rare as the watch which made Del Boy Trotter a millionaire, I also dismissed the surprising prediction of media pundit Chris Sutton who said he thought we could dig in defensively for a 0-0 draw and force a replay .

After a brilliant first half, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I was starting to think that maybe I had been a tad pessimistic beforehand and that Sutton was maybe a modern-day Nostradamus after all.

We had played really well in all areas of the pitch, especially in defence, and had gone into the interval on level terms after comfortably holding the multi-million pound Chelsea side .

To use the lyrics of Jon Bon Jovi we were ‘halfway there’ and ‘living on a prayer’ – but we failed to ‘hold on to what we got’ when the hosts showed their quality and powered in three goals in a dynamic 11-minute spell beginning shortly before the hour mark

It was also tough on the 6,000 fans who travelled down to the capital and gave their team some magnificent vocal support throughout the game.

They did not get a Richard Cresswell moment with a goal, like they had in the 3-1 defeat the last time a Preston team took the field at Stamford Bridge under David Moyes in a fifth round tie almost 22 years ago.

However, they applauded the players like they had won the match in some pretty amazing scenes after the final whistle.

The cup tie was basically a free hit for manager Ryan Lowe with his more important quest being the one to halt our alarming slide down the league table.

If our players can replicate their committed first-half display over 90 minutes in our upcoming home game with Bristol City maybe we could get some welcome points on the board, lift some of the negativity and gloom around Deepdale at the moment and really give our fans something to cheer about.