Graham Alexander bemoans Preston's missed chances in Wrexham loss and questions his approach with the players

Graham Alexander was left ruing Preston North End’s lack of decisiveness in front of goal in the 4-1 defeat to Wrexham on Saturday, and admitted he would have to consider if he was asking ‘too much’ of his players.

It’s now three games without a win since taking charge for Alexander, who has seen his new side concede four goals in successive away games.

The boss believes North End asserted themselves more on Wrexham than they did in Birmingham on Tuesday night, with Andrew Hughes putting a free header wide in the opening stages.

Alexander did at least get to see his side finally score when Alfie Devine equalised after Joe Worral’s opener. The joy lasted just six minutes, though, before former Lily White, Ben Whiteman, scored his first goal for his new club against his former one to restore the lead.

There were more chances for Preston in the second half, with Johnny Kenny getting into a good position but hitting his effort wide before the returning Irishman teed up Brad Potts for a great opportunity.

However, the midfielder, also making his comeback from injury, couldn’t hit the target.

Instead of going 2-2, Preston would soon concede two more to go 4-1 down and leave Alexander regretting the squandered chances.

“Only now it does, when you look in hindsight,” he said when asked if the Potts miss was a moment that the game swung on.

“But these are moments you have to take. You're not going to get chance after chance, so any that you do fashion, or you get, you have to try to take them."

Despite the good openings, Preston still only managed to get a single shot on target for a third game running, with an xG of 0.72.

Brad Potts made first appearance of the season at Wrexham

Potts was making his first first-team appearance of the season after returning to action with the under-21s on Tuesday in a 2-1 Central League win over Rotherham United, playing 45 minutes.

The veteran also hit another decent chance wide late on, though the game was well lost by that point.

Alexander added: “Brad's come back after such a long time out and to come on at that particular moment, all I want to see is players committing to those areas, keep going.

“Which they will and we have to encourage them to do that.”

More defensive mistakes cost Preston

For the third game running, Preston conceded goals from defensive mistakes, with particularly weak defending at set pieces this time.

When asked by The Post about the manner of the goals, Alexander bemoaned the timing of Whiteman's strike, coming so soon after Devine's leveller: “I haven't looked it back just yet, but I think the timing of the second one, at 1-1.

"We were really in the game and deservedly got the equaliser.

“I don't know if it's concentration, focus, I'm not sure. I thought it was quite a fortunate strike it looked more like a tackle from the edge of the box and it's managed to go in the bottom corner.

"I think just the timing makes it difficult for the players at half-time.

“But to be fair, at half-time, they knew they'd competed at a really good level, but it's not just been this week, it's been a really long time.

"We have to try and find solutions to be harder to beat on the goals front.”

Wrexham had a lot of joy from set pieces and Alexander was also asked about his side conceding from such moments.

He said: "I think the one, not sure with the free-kick, but the corner, we've lost who was doing that job [Liam Lindsay], obviously came off injured.

"When you make subs and stuff like that, sometimes it's difficult. They're not in the swing of the game, they go on I think it happened a little bit during the week when we had to change a couple of players through injury and you see the ones that go on are a little bit not as focussed as the ones already playing.

"There's bits and pieces like that. We have to look at it all.

"I think improvement can happen all over the pitch. We look to try and change to be more competitive, more front-footed than we were on Tuesday against Birmingham, which, without a shadow of a doubt, we were, but there's still things for us to improve.

"I have to look at whether I'm asking too much of the players at this moment considering where they are."

Preston are next in action at home to West Brom on Saturday.