Well, after all the anticipation Saturday’s trip to Deepdale offered the most horrific first 15 minutes since I last saw Halloween, writes Simon Smith.

It just went to show that all flesh is vulnerable.

Many, probably most, would have selected that defence and yet it had me pondering the differing definitions of the word ‘torrid’.

A friend offered the cliche that “sometimes you are the dog, sometimes you are the lamppost” yet for all their attacking flair Rovers have yet to win as heavily as they lose.

One straw to clutch at in the Preston gloom was that ‘we wuz robbed’ of a vital goal. Football is a fragile patchwork and ‘chaos theory’ doesn’t just apply to our back four.

Each game is a series of moments, all which influence the next.

Although, as the taproom preacher tells you, players are well paid, their mind can slip into anxiety.

A booking can quell a player’s desire to compete; a bad pass followed by the low drone of disapproval and disappointment from the crowd can weigh heavy; a missed chance gets a player’s head down. 

And, in the bigger picture, one brush-stroke changes the whole thing. For Rovers to have returned to a one-goal deficit just a minute after going 1-3 down could have changed the whole landscape. Coulda would, shoulda. 

We will never know and it has to just be put down, as so much was on the day, to a mistake. In essence, Rovers were below par yet could still have taken something from the game.

That should have boded well for the rest of the season. Mistakes happen. They are frustrating and avoidable but not as worrisome as players giving up.

5500 fans deserved to see all 10 outfield players giving it 100 per cent to the end, not just a handful. It made a dour day worse and was not recognisable from a Tony Mowbray team.

Luckily Rovers have a chance to put it behind them tonight. Let’s hope they do.