A couple of seasons ago a reporter pointed out to the manager of another local club that his side had only won once in their last 17 games and asked him “Surely it cannot go on like this?”.

He replied with a terse “It can”, before going onto to say “but we don’t want it to and we will be doing everything in our power to try and stop it."

I hope that following another home defeat our manager can adopt this stance and end this poor run of miserable results .

However after this dismal showing, I think that Paul Heckingbottom has a lot of work to do to avoid eventually suffering the same fate as Mick McCarthy, who was eventually sacked a few games before his side Blackpool were relegated.

North End's Jordan Thompson during the defeat by Oxford

placeholder image — North End's Jordan Thompson during the defeat by Oxford

It is a small mercy that due to our flying start to the campaign we are not heavily involved in a relegation dogfight. Our form in the 14 games played since our win in the reverse fixture at the Kassam Stadium in December is similar to that of the visitors, who were second from bottom in the table, having taken just 13 points from their last 15 games prior to kick-off.

Heckingbottom picked an attacking-looking side with a flat back four. We started the game on the front foot but any optimism in my mind arising from this soon evaporated when Oxford took took the lead the first time they had got the ball inside our penalty area in the fifth minute.

Before kick-off I had feared that the atmosphere would turn toxic if we did not score first but it was not the case at this point as the home crowd stayed with their team.

They were rewarded soon afterwards when Milutin Osmajic headed in an equaliser shortly after. It was a unfamiliar sight to see the Town End Titan score a rare league goal at his seemingly unfavoured end but nevertheless it was a welcome one.

Just before half-time our night took a bad turn after record signing Callum Lang, who had looked lively, limped off meaning that for various reasons we did not have any of our January signings on the pitch. Surely things could not get any worse?

Oh but indeed they could. By the time the game had reached the hour mark the visitors had eased their way into a two-goal lead. We huffed and puffed a bit but never looked like coming back into the game. In all honesty we were so poor that we managed to make relegation-threatened Oxford – decked out in their marvellous Baxi-sponsored yellow strip – look like Borussia Dortmund.

The closing stages of the game saw a steady stream of spectators leave the stadium. By the time the final whistle blew the ground was almost empty.

For me knowing that this game would also be seen on Sky television in the pubs and clubs around the country felt embarrassing but after such a woeful performance you could not really blame them for leaving.

It certainly was a sad sight seeing the players and manager troop dejectedly around the pitch clapping the very few diehard fans who applauded them off the pitch.

The rest of the us either just walked off although a substantial number did stay behind to vent their fury and boo them off the field.

It was not the ideal Deepdale send off to the players before their midweek away trip to leaders Coventry. It must shatter the players’ confidence but as far as most fans are concerned the game is a results-based business .

It was definitely a disastrous ‘Bad Day At Black Rock’ all round, which left me wondering where we can go from here.

For me this lacklustre performance devoid of creativity was simply not good enough.

It also confirms what I thought after our loss against Millwall – that there's more chance of Father Christmas coming twice in a year than our side making the play-offs in May.