Danny Graham felt Rovers lost intensity and discipline as the game at Preston North End slipped away from them late on.

Rovers conceded twice in the opening 10 minutes and then twice in 11 second half minutes as they fell to a 4-1 defeat.

Graham looked to have hauled Rovers back in to the game when heading in his fifth goal of the season just three minutes after his half time introduction.

They failed to build on that momentum however, and goals in the 74th and 85th minutes gave the scoreline a one-sided look.

“It was great to score just after half time and we penned them in for 15 minutes before we went a bit flat,” the experienced striker said.

“We lost intensity and that discipline, and it showed in the goals we conceded.

“It wasn’t a great start and we ended up finding ourselves 2-0 down inside the opening 10 minutes or so.

“We can’t defend like we did. The Championship is hard enough as it is without gifting two soft goals.”

Rovers were backed by a sold-out travelling support of 5,500. But those who made the trip from East Lancashire had little to cheer as Preston roared in to a two goal lead.

And Graham apologised to the fans for the display in what was a fourth defeat of the season for Rovers.

He added: “It’s a local derby and the two early goals give their fans a lift.

“When we score we think we’ll get right back into it, but at times we looked to get the next goal a little too early and lost our discipline a bit.

“We need to show maturity and we didn’t do that.

“Not only have we let ourselves down, we’ve let the supporters down who came in their numbers to back us once again.

“It wasn’t good enough and I can only apologise to the 5,500 fans who got behind us.”

Graham said there were ‘huffs and puffs’ from Rovers in their quest to get back in to the game, not helped by a goal wrongly chalked off for offside when Ben Brereton found the back of the net.

But as ever, the striker says Rovers can learn from the defeat.

“It’s a tough one to take and we need to learn from it really quickly,” he said.

“If we are 2-0 down again and get a goal back then I think we shouldn’t go too gung-ho too early.

“We should get the extra pass in and get better. It’s about how we react now and thankfully we have a game on Wednesday at Wigan.”

Graham wasn’t included in the starting line-up, but it was Kasey Palmer, rather than Adam Armstrong who led the line.

When asked if Rovers are still searching for someone to play in Graham’s role when he’s not starting, boss Mowbray said: “Danny hasn’t trained, he hasn’t kicked a ball for two weeks, his first day back training was on Thursday.

“In my opinion, he’s 33 and hadn’t done any training and the right thing to do in my opinion was to leave him on the bench and not expose him to try and get 90 minutes

“He came on and made an impact, but I don’t sit here regretting the decisions I made with the team selection.

“Palmer played up top, we went with the speed of Armstrong in the wide areas.”