No chance of making the play-offs says Preston North End Fans’ Panel member John Smith

I’m sorry to have to say that if we cannot win at home against a side who had not won, and scored only one goal in their last five outings, then we have no chance of making the play-offs this season unless there is a remarkable turnaround of this abysmal home form.

It could even of been much worse had it not been for a fortunate own goal three minutes from time which salvaged a draw, keeping the gap between us and third-from-bottom Wycombe at nine points instead of reducing it to six.

On the flip side of the coin, had Emil Riis squared the ball instead of slicing his injury-time shot into Row P of the Alan Kelly Stand it would have been extended to 12, illustrating the importance of such a costly miss.

Things looked rosy enough when Tom Barkhuizen headed us into an early lead until shortly after the half-hour mark when the “Curse of Deepdale” struck again when Ben Pearson went down with no one else near him.

If you believe in a curse it can affect your decision making as well as your self confidence, and once our talisman had limped off things went rapidly downhill.

Personally don’t think that it was the work of supernatural forces – more a case of slack defending which led to the visitors’ two goals although it might be an idea for Alex Neil to ask former manager John Beck for the phone number of the fortune teller he brought to Deepdale in the 90s and get her to sprinkle some more magic potion over the pitch as soon as possible just in case.

Five years ago we were at the happy place of Turf Moor watching a 2-0 win over Burnley. On Saturday I wished I could have time-travelled back to that day.