Troy Parrott disagrees with Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe after he criticised players' mentality

The North End boss had questioned the mentality and mindset of his charges after their do or die game against the Blades ended in a 4-1 defeat.

Preston had to win the game to keep their hopes of a play-off game alive but instead losing heavily means it's mathematically impossible for them to reach the top six.

Lowe gave an explosive post match interview after the game, questioning his players' and the club, in terms of their ambitions, and also said he was unsure what his future at the club was like.

But Parrott disagreed that the players had mentality or mindset issues in the crunch clash at Bramall Lane.

On whether the players' mentalities were an issue in the defeat, Parrott said: "I don't think so, no. I'm going to stand by my teammates. We all had the right mentality going into the game and during the game I think we could have been a little bit stronger in the minds when we got to 1-1 to kind of chill out a little bit and keep the shape and stuff like that.

"We knew we had to win so we went for it, and it cost us. It's done now, all we can do is look forward to next weekend and put on a good show for the fans to end the season.

"The fans have been behind us all season so I think we need to go back and put on a good show for them.

"I've been keen to do well all season, everyone here has treated me well, the fans have treated me well so it's a shame that I couldn't give back to them today but there is another game to go and we need to make sure we go and put on a good performance for the fans."

There was an inquest in the dressing room after the game as to how North End capitulated on the biggest stage of their season, with their whole campaign on the line.

The Lilywhites were soundly beaten by a side that had spent much of the week celebrating their promotion, with only a light training session done on Friday.

The players didn't hold back with each other as they looked to get to the bottom of why things went wrong, something which Parrott commends.

He said: "We were all brutally honest with ourselves in the changing room at the end. I'm not going to say what was said in the changing room but we all know we could have done better.

"I could have done better, for sure, with the chance that I had in the second half but I think we left the mountain too big to climb. We're all men in there, we all understand where each other is coming from and I think that's important in the changing room.

"It wasn't good enough and we've let ourselves down. We knew we needed to win and we didn't, ultimately. It's not good enough but I guess it's done now and we have to focus on next week."