Preston North End boss Alex Neil rues 'frightening' goal conceded and missed chances in defeat to Rotherham United

The Lilywhites were beaten 2-1, going behind after just 17 seconds to an own goal from Joe Rafferty.

Ben Wiles doubled the Millers' lead 10 minutes into the second half before Ched Evans pulled one back on his first start in a Preston shirt.

North End created plenty of chances, Tom Barkhuizen putting a first-half shot too close to the goalkeeper when he should have buried it, while Ben Whiteman hit the inside of the post with a free-kick.

But they were left empty-handed as late pressure failed to produce an equaliser.

Neil said: "I thought we should have won the game, if you look at the chances we had throughout the match in comparison to the ones they had, I think we definitely deserved to win the game.

"We didn't take our opportunities and standing on the side it is difficult to take.

"What we tried to do in the game worked really well, we tried to keep three up the pitch, make it three versus three and get front facing, get down the sides of them.

"I thought we did all that, the players' quality came through at times with creating the opportunities but we needed to be clinical, deadly in those areas.

"The first 20 seconds of the game though, how that ends up in the back of our net is frightening.

"It gave us a mountain to climb. I didn't think we got started for 10 minutes.

"In that spell were Rotherham were a bit brighter than us, a bit more aggressive, put better balls up than us.

"From that point to half-time we were comfortably the better team. We moved the ball well, probably had five really good chances to score but didn't convert any of them."

Having made his feelings known about the first goal North End conceded, Neil wasn't impressed with the defending for Rotherham's second either.

What did impress though, was Evans' display up front.

Neil said: "We started the second half brightly, had a couple of chances but defensively we were poor for their second goal.

"We released the full-back area far too quickly, we didn't cover off, it looked like we were standing there watching, they square it off and scored the goal.

"At that point we didn't deserve that but it was another kick in the gut really.

"We got going again, Ched got us back into the game, I thought he was massive plus point for us today.

"He led the line great, he was strong, physical, he linked the game, he took it in, I thought he bullied their centre-backs.

"After that we huffed and puffed, Scott Sinclair got the ball in the net but was deemed to be offside.

"This one was a sore one for me. If you play poorly, don't create chances, you get beat and the opposition are better, you take it on the chin and get on with it.

"When today you have as many chances as we had and how their goal was as horrific as it is, to lose the game is a sore one."

Loan players Anthony Gordon and Liam Lindsay made their PNE debuts after being named in the starting XI.

Later in the game, Sepp van den Berg came off the bench to make his bow.

Gordon caught the eye in the first half before fading a little in the second, the 19-year-old winger offering a big threat from the left.

Neil said: "I thought Anthony looked threatening, there was one in the first half when he came inside the player and probably should have done better. - that was one of the good chances we had.

"There was another one when Tommy B fizzes it across the box and Anthony just needed to work his feet better.

"You could see how much talent he had but equally what he does have to recognise is when to dribble and when to pass the ball.

"On occasions they sent a second defender over to double up on him because he was causing them issues.

"That is when he needs to get his head up and make sure he finds the spare player in our team.

"One hundred per cent, that will come with experience.

"When you are a young player you want to show how good a player you are and I thought he did that.

"Equally when you are playing as part of a team and want to make an impact in the team, you have to do what is best for the team rather than what is best individually."

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