John Smith's PNE fans' panel verdict: Two pivotal moments as West Brom curse strikes again
On my journey down to West Brom, with our team being on a five-match unbeaten run, I was in a buoyant mood and believing this was the day we could rectify our abysmal record there by returning home with at least a point.
With us still being in the game right until the last minute, I did not experience quite as much of a prickly time at the Hawthorns as I had felt on previous occasions.
However, it feels that this place is cursed as a narrow 2-1 reverse amazingly made it 14 league defeats from our last 15 visits here since 1973.
Backed by more than 2,000 vociferous fans, North End’s players responded in the game’s early stages.
In the first 20 minutes of it, we looked like the accomplished side we have become which is something our position in the table would suggest.
In my opinion, we should have had what our old manager Craig Brown would have called a ‘stonewall’ penalty when Harrison Armstrong was tripped in the area.
Incredibly, the referee – who I thought had a poor game for both sides – failed to point to the spot even though he appeared well placed to see it.
When Milutin Osmajic had his shot saved by the keeper’s outstretched legs when he burst through on goal, looking certain to score, it made me wish that instead the golden chance could have fallen to ‘Hot Shot Hamish’; the Scorcher comic hero who hit the ball so hard he frequently burst the goal netting.
If these two moments in the game had panned out differently, it could have altered the course of the game and the eventual destination of the three points.
Albion grew in confidence after this and, with their crowd behind them, got their tails up for the rest of the half.
My man of the match, Daniel Iversen, made a brilliant double save to keep the scores level, but could do nothing about the two great strikes either side of the interval which sealed the win for the home side.
Michael Smith, one of a quadruple substitution we made, pulled a goal back as we made a fist of it in the closing stages.
Apart from the obvious disappointment of the result, I also felt that we did not create enough chances to win the game.
With the games now coming thick and fast, we must move on and keep battling in our next two home matches to keep the drawbridge of Fortress Deepdale firmly shut.