Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe addressed problems from Millwall loss with dressing room replays

Lowe was quick to get to the bottom of why things went wrong for North End against the Lions, costing them a spot in the play-off places over the World Cup break.

PNE quickly went two goals down to Millwall thanks to a double from Zian Flemming but just was as quickly back level as four goals flew in during the opening half an hour at Deepdale. An own goal and a Ched Evans header drew Lowe’s men level and despite looking like the side most likely to win the match, they fell away in the second half to a 4-2 defeat, Flemming netting another and Charlie Cresswell heading in a fourth.

“I've shown the lads the goals. we can't just leave it to dwell,” Lowe said.

"We have got a good group of lads that will hold their hands up and say that they could have done better or done things differently. That's fine by me.

"They're human beings, they make mistakes. I felt we complicated one or two things in our patterns of play instead of doing the basics right which allowed them a foothold in the game.

"Let's take nothing away from Millwall. Their game plan was spot on, they got in and about us. They played at times, went long at times, stepped in at times and were very aggressive in everything they did.

"And they had a goalscorer in Flemming who they paid £1.7m for, sometimes they are the fine margins and I think that's what it was today.”

Having done the hard part and got themselves back into the game at 2-2, it proved to be for nought as North End conceded twice in the second half, which frustrated their manager.

He said: "I knew if we got one goal we'd be fine, when we got two it was happy days. We were level at half time and the messages that we give the lads went out because we had a fast start and had a few chances to score, but we didn't.

"I was disappointed and frustrated with that, that we didn't score, and disappointed and frustrated that we let them get two goals.”