John Smith’s Preston North End Fans’ Panel verdict: We MUST start converting our chances or miss Premier League boat

However before the game it was a reality but alas our promotion hopes suffered a setback following another defeat at the hands of the Londoners, another consequence being the widening of this gap to six points.

We started brightly enough in the first 15 minutes with our best chance falling early on to Daniel Johnson, a player I think has excelled himself in recent matches since his return from injury.

However following this opening foray in which we also had a strong penalty appeal turned down, we struggled to break down a very organised Millwall side who, once they had settled, started to pose a threat going forwards.

In the second half Millwall continued to look the more likely side to score and we were definitely in need of a cunning plan to make a breakthrough.

But although Alex Neil used all his three substitutes nothing much changed in the pattern of the game.

Millwall eventually took the lead 12 minutes from time and in desperation we tried to go more direct, throwing my man of the match Patrick Bauer up front.

However the big German was no Gerd Muller and the burning question in my mind is that if the intention was to switch tactics and go direct, why did we not bring the natural tall forward Jayden Stockley on instead of Seun Maguire and why wait until Millwall scored?

On the positive side we still remain in a top-six place, but on the negative side in the second half we failed to record a shot on target until Paul Gallagher’s injury-time free kick.

With goals being the currency of football we need to put away our chances when they come in the big 13 games left in order to preserve the Premier League dream.