Saturday 22 August 2015 20:24, UK
Simon Grayson was left to lament a lack of cutting edge after Preston were beaten 2-1 by Championship joint leaders Ipswich at Deepdale.
North End conceded their first goal of the league season when Brett Pitman nodded home a Freddie Sears cross after 24 minutes. The hosts levelled things up through Daniel Johnson but Ryan Fraser struck 25 minutes from time with what proved to be the winner.
"The game could have been over and done with, with the chances we had and the problems we caused them but we didn't quite have that clinical edge and that was the difference," said Grayson.
"We've come up against a disciplined team who know how to kill a game but we were very pleased with that first 30 minutes. If the game was played in stats then we would have won the game but that's not the case.
"We wanted to kick on in the second half but unfortunately we couldn't produce that little bit of quality that they did in the end. We came up against a strong team.
"Up to today we've kept three clean sheets and been satisfied with what we've done. We wanted to have a platform to build off and we've played against the top of the table and give a good account of ourselves. It can only lift the confidence."
It took a special goal to separate the sides and that came from Fraser after the break, who collected the ball 20 yards out and curled a right-footed effort over Preston goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and into the far corner.
Ipswich have now picked up 10 points from their first four league games and manager Mick McCarthy believes his side are laying an early platform for another tilt at promotion.
"We might have ground this sort of game out in the past and drawn one-all but we saw the quality Ryan has," said McCarthy. "We have quite clearly made progress year on year and let's hope we continued to make progress and finish higher than sixth.
"I haven't got the biggest squad of players but the players I have are good players. I am delighted because it was a hard-fought game.
"Preston were the better team in the first half and we were lucky to go in front really.
"I had to change my shape because I fully expected them to play 3-5-2 and we planned for that but they changed it. It did catch us on the hop at bit.
"There were one or two doing real selfless jobs for us. Not what we want to do but if we end up getting enough points to get in the Premier League nobody will complain."
