Rovers wilted under the second half Preston pressure that in turn ramped it up on boss Tony Mowbray.

There was little by way of resistance, or leadership, as Rovers let more points slip through their fingers to fall to a fourth defeat in six matches. Yet again we witnessed a huge disparity between the performance of one 45 minutes to the next.

A fragility set in, calling in to question their mentality at being unable to respond to setbacks, and there seemed an inevitability that the game would turn from the moment Christian Walton misjudged a right wing cross that handed the hosts a lifeline as Tom Barkhuizen poked the ball home.

Their excellent first half work was wiped out within 20 minutes of the re-start, Derrick Williams unable to make the right connection with his attempted clearance that forced Elliott Bennett in to a challenge he didn’t want to make as he brought down Alan Browne.

After Daniel Johnson swept home the spot-kick, the inevitability that many in the away end feared rang true eight minutes from time as Barkhuizen scored his second, and Preston’s third, with a fine curling effort from the left edge of the box.

Where North End’s response packed a punch, Rovers went out with something of a whimper, offering nothing in response to a go a sixth game without a win, from which they have taken just two points.

A combination of failing to turn leads in to victories, and struggling to take anything from matches when falling behind, is a worrying combination.

Once again they got themselves in to a winning position, leading 2-0 at the break after two goals in the opening 12 minutes, providing a platform from which they needed to kick on and assert some level of authority.

But things unravelled too easily, undone, not for the first time, by the physical presence of a centre forward, as they failed to stem the wave of PNE pressure that was always to be expected.

The game turned on the introduction of Jayden Stockley as Alex Neil sensed the need to change immediately, resisting the temptation to wait until half-time. The half hour was approaching as he sent on the physicality of Stockley for the ball-playing option of Paul Gallagher to inject some life in to his team.

By that point Rovers looked to have squeezed the life out of the hosts, responding to their manager’s call for more life as the intensity of a new central midfield combination of Bennett and Corry Evans wrestled the initiative their way.

And in attack, Sam Gallagher looked like the £5m centre forward Rovers have craved. He thought his long wait for a league goal, which stretched back to January 2018, had ended inside 30 seconds when guiding an Adam Armstrong cross towards the bottom corner.

Eventually, the goal would go down as a Declan Rudd own goal, the ball going in off the ‘keeper having come back off the post, but Gallagher wouldn’t have to wait long to end his drought.

He closed down an attempted clearance and despite the protests of handball, curled home a left footed effort to put Rovers two goals to the good.

But as Neil sensed the need to affect things from the bench, when the boot was on the other foot as Rovers came under the pump in the second half, Mowbray resisted the temptation to change. Not until they had gone 3-2 behind, and Danny Graham was thrown on, did Rovers make their first, and sole, substitution.

That hasn’t happened for some 27 games, with Mowbray rarely letting a game go beyond the midway point of the second half without turning to his bench that included the combative quality of Lewis Travis and technical ability of Stewart Downing.

Though from the moment Barkhuizen curled a fine strike beyond Walton, there was visible dejection in the Rovers ranks, and with it, gone was the possible threat of a fightback of their own.

Mowbray felt Preston did no more than simply ‘boot it long’ in the second half, but to succumb to such a tactic, made it even more disappointing that was to be their undoing.

Opportunities did open up for Rovers on the break in the second half, but a lack of care with the final pass, let them down. The closest they went was a Williams header from a Bradley Dack cross two minutes in to the second half that drifted wide. 

On the weekend the clocks went back, what Rovers would give to rewind a month and be preparing for that Luton home game on the back of consecutive wins and with a fully-fit squad given what’s transpired since.

‘We need a result’ said the manager before the game. After the circumstances behind this latest Deepdale defeat, boy do Rovers need one, and more, as the dissenting voices grew that bit louder.