PNE suffered their fourth defeat on the bounce as Norwich won 2-0 on Saturday

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom rued his side’s performance in both boxes at Norwich City.

The Lilywhites slumped to their fourth consecutive defeat as goals from Ali Ahmed and Kenny McClean clinched a 2-0 victory for the hosts. PNE had a big opportunity at nil-nil through Daniel Jebbison while Andrew Hughes ought to have pulled a goal back in the second half. In the end, the Canaries’ kept their clean sheet in tact and climbed above Preston in the table - with Heckingbottom’s men now 17th.

Speaking post-match, the PNE boss said: “Yeah, another tough one. We've had a bright start, had the best chance of the game and then a lapse in concentration. Odel is correct side, they take a shot; Odel is wrong side and we're one down. It gets compounded by a referee decision.

“Those are the things that are costing us, but after a bright start we knew that we were still in the game and we knew we'd made it hard for ourselves, but we responded in the right way. The big frustration is that we didn't score. If we'd have taken any one of those chances, we'd have made it much more difficult for Norwich.

“We had chances second half, but we never made them feel that tension and anxiety that can come if we'd have got a goal. We have to get everything right and deliver top performances to give ourselves the best chance. Sometimes you can get away with those moments. We're not at the minute, but that's on us.

“You also need the other things to go your favour, like the referees and things like that, but then also we've got to be clinical. We can't have those opportunities in and around the six-yard box of a good team away from home and not take them. So, yeah, those are the differences.

“We've had loads of those (nearly moments). That is our story. Even first half, just one or two moments of lack of quality, but if we're trying the right things, I can't criticise that. I'd rather people be trying the right things and getting on the ball and failing than hiding from the ball.

“The top (of the pitch) has always been that (biggest issue) for me because the goals change the games. Jebbo does great, gets the ball, great chance... that goes in and it's a totally different game then. The goals change games and it will always be that. We're not blessed with funds to go out and buy goals. We've got to try and create them within and that's the frustration today because I thought we really did and we've not taken them.”

Heckingbottom - Naive to assume we’re safe

“100%,” said Heckingbottom. “I don't know if you remember me before the Cup quarter-final last year... that was my big gripe about the whole place. I need the fans to turn out Friday; I’ve already told the players. Everyone last year, I felt, because we took over at the bottom and then rose up the league to mid-table... I'd already seen the nature of the injuries and what was coming back after international break.

“And everyone was excited about the Cup quarter-final and that can happen. Hopefully, we get the boys who were injured back, who can help us and we don't have to flip the other way. Again, a lot of that stuff at the end of last season was out of our control. We had some stinking referee decisions there. So, you've always got to fight and scrap and no, you're never, ever safe, never.”

He added: “It will turn. It's not nice and, reassuring is the wrong word, but when it's clear to see, like I'm looking there today, we all saw what we got wrong. We made a mistake for the first goal; moment of quality from them. You could save the second but I'm not happy with the award of the free kick and us not taking our chances. That's it, it's not like it's a puzzle to figure out why we've been beat.”

On whether the wall was told not to jump for the free-kick, Heckingbottom said: “Sometimes we mix it up. In hindsight you'd always do it but sometimes we don't. As a rule, that far out you can jump because if it goes under the wall, when your wall's 18 yards out, 16 yards out, Dan gets a chance to get there.

“So, we tend to go off distance. The wall could have jumped there. We'd only stop doing it if we've got evidence someone goes under it or when your wall's 12 yards and in, it doesn't give Dan the reaction time.”