Ryan Lowe said he didn’t recognise his Preston North End side in their 1-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers.
The loss at Loftus Road was North End’s third of the week and came because of Lyndon Dykes’ strike in the 20th minute, following a defensive error.
PNE’s best chance of the game came before that through Liam Millar, but after going behind they never quite managed to force Asmir Begović into any meaningful action.
Summing up his side’s performance, Ryan said: “Not very good. It’s hard to sum it up right now but that’s not my team. I didn’t recognise that today, with or without the ball.
“That’s the old Preston. That’s why I came because they weren’t good enough and today they weren’t good enough. I’m bitterly disappointed.
“I’ve made my views known to the players and one or two of the lads have said the right things as well, but it won’t be an easy ride from now until the end of the season.
“We would have taken four points out of the last three games. We've got to go and try and get as many points as we can against another two good teams.
“Bitterly disappointed because that wasn’t my team, our team, with what we’ve done and where we’ve got to so far this season. We gave the ball away, were sloppy in our passing, staying in areas too long, not coming out the other side. I could go on all day but I’ll analyse it on the bus on the way home.
“I can only apologise to the fans who have come and paid their hard-earned money. That wasn’t a recognisable Preston North End team under me and that’s what’s disappointing.”
Following defeat to Southampton during the week, North End were strengthened by returning players, as Alan Browne and Ryan Ledson were deemed fit enough to start, and Liam Millar also came back into the starting XI.
QPR were always going to be up for the game at Loftus Road, with their Sky Bet Championship status at stake, but the manager felt his side could have done much more to stop the hosts coming out on top.
Ryan said: “I’ll never oust anyone out because they’re my players. I take responsibility because I’m the manager. We work on stuff everyday to make sure we do it right and the stuff we’ve been working on I didn’t see any of it.
“So I have to take responsibility but we do it as a collective thing as well. When players are not doing what we ask them to do and individual errors creep in, and they don’t play the way I want them to play, I’ll have to take responsibility because I’m the manager of course.
“But we all need to take responsibility collectively because we need to be better. We’ve shown some good signs this season that got us so close and at the moment it’s to me as if it's, 'The season’s nearly finished and we’ve got two weeks to go.'
“No, the days off and the schedule will be changed next week because you can reward when you’re winning and getting points but you can’t reward failure so we’ll be working hard now.”
