Duane Holmes pinpoints Preston North End’s downfall in 4-2 defeat to Ipswich Town

Preston North End midfielder Duane Holmes admitted individual errors cost the Lilywhites in Saturday’s 4-2 loss against Ipswich Town.

The Lilywhites tasted defeat for the third league match in a row, having gone eight unbeaten at the start of the campaign. Kieran McKenna’s side led 3-1 at half time and went on to kill the game 12 minutes from time, at Portman Road. Mads Frokjaer made it one-all in the first half and Ben Whiteman pulled a goal back for Preston, but the visitors could not force a comeback.

Holmes dropped out of the starting lineup after Wednesday night’s trip to Leicester City. But, PNE boss Ryan Lowe introduced him at the break along with goal scorer Whiteman and fellow attacker Liam Millar. The American pulled very few punches post-match and insisted that Preston shot themselves in the foot on the day.

“First half, I don’t think we were at our level and second half I thought we were a little bit better,” said Holmes. “But, it is easy to play when you are trailing. You get the goal and get back in it, then concede another goal which we probably should stop. So, not a great day. We knew what to expect because they are a good team and they like to play good football. But, I just think it was little errors for the goals - very avoidable and that is the disappointing thing.”

Holmes was warming up at the interval and therefore could not relay the half-time message in the dressing room. With North End having shipped 11 goals in three games, though, he knows the importance of getting back to basics when Preston return post-international break. Holmes believes the North End squad will keep level headed, despite recent results.

“Yeah, that is the thing,” said Holmes. “We are disappointed because we know, defensively, we’ve been very solid since the start of the season. Like I say, it was little, individual errors in the first half which cost us the game unfortunately. We speak all the time about not getting too up when we are winning and not too down when we are losing.

“We know that we’ve got more than enough to come back from this break, bounce back and be the better version of ourselves again. It’s been a tough week but these things happen; you are always going to lose games in this division because it’s so tough. Everyone is very good, so we’ll just get our heads down and put it right when we get back.”