Preston North End goalkeeper's blunt assessment of defeat at Swansea

The Lilywhites lost 1-0 in South Wales, Ryan Manning’s strike from 25 yards early in the second half settling the Championship clash.

Manning’s shot flew beyond the reach of Iversen in the 51st minute and North End couldn’t find a way back.

Iversen said: “Did we deserve anything from the game? Not really. We didn’t deserve anything.

“We didn’t create many chances so that made it difficult.

“Our quality wasn’t there and we needed to be much better than we were.

“We have to bounce back quickly from this and we will have to play better at West Bromwich Albion than we did against Swansea.

“There were times when we played the ball back too much rather than going forward.”

Swansea’s winner came in a strong spell of pressure they had in the 15 minutes after the interval.

Manning’s goal saw the home side get their tails up and they went close to adding to their tally.

Iversen pushed a shot from Cyrus Christie behind then denied Manning another goal with a diving save.

A change of formation to a 4-3-3 gave North End a bit more joy in the latter stages in terms of putting some pressure on.

By then Swansea seemed content to keep in their shape, soak up pressure and play on the counter attack.

This was a first league defeat for PNE under Ryan Lowe following on from two wins and two draws.

Lowe felt his side lacked quality in terms of their creativity, North End registering just one chance officially on target.

That was a first-half header from Ched Evans which Iversen’s opposite number Ben Hamer tipped over.

Deep in stoppage-time, a shot from Ryan Ledson was goalbound until it struck Greg Cunningham who was stood in the six-yard box, and deflected wide.

When a shot is blocked like that in the box, it doesn’t count as on target with the statistics people.

North End must now dust themselves down and get ready for Wednesday night’s trip to play-off chasing West Bromwich.

The Baggies sit fifth in the table having beaten Peterborough 3-0 at the Hawthorns on Saturday.

The midweek trip to the Midlands is a rearranged one for PNE, with the original December 29 date postponed due to Covid.