Preston North End: Major frustration must follow Sheffield United repeat vs Southampton - View | OneFootball

Highlights

Once again, another season that promised so much for Preston North End has ended in disappointment. Supporters of the Lilywhites have seen their club crumble at the business end of the campaign and find themselves in an all too familiar position watching their side play out dead-rubber fixtures, firmly out of promotion contention.

The season had been drifting for some time, but it felt like Groundhog Day last week for Preston fans. The team showed little resistance when faced with a Southampton onslaught. The visiting side could only create one shooting opportunity as they were well beaten by a team in red-hot form. Although Russell Martin’s Saints have battled their way back into the promotion picture lately, earlier in the campaign Preston would have been viewed as a potential banana skin opponent. But now, similarly to last season, the Lancashire outfit have run out of steam against a superior side. The play-offs are now almost an impossible task and the chance to move into seventh and put some pressure on the top-six is now long gone.

Last year it was Sheffield United that brought Preston’s season to a premature end. When Oli McBurnie scored in added time to round off a 4-1 win for the Blades last April, the Lilywhites were consigned to another year outside the Premier League, frustratingly given that the Blades were essentially 'on the beach' with automatic promotion wrapped up days earlier. The manner of the club’s defeat, first against Sheffield United, then against Southampton this season must trouble Preston fans who have repeatedly watched their team pull up before the finish line.

Yet again, there is a sense of Déjà vu about the team’s run-in. For the eighth successive season, PNE will miss out on the play-offs and finish far from the relegation positions. Although Preston are stuck in a rut, set for mid-table mediocrity once more, the side's bright start to this campaign could foreshadow an improvement next season. If Ryan Lowe can get his players to explode out of the blocks similarly, and not fall away, Preston fans may be set for a more exciting Championship end this time next year.

Preston must find consistency amid Championship chaos

Preston were the team quickest off the mark at the start of this Championship season. In September, when the Lilywhites came from behind to beat Birmingham City 2-1 at Deepdale, the side had already established a ten-point advantage over Leeds United (currently third) after just nine league games. PNE fans are well accustomed to the dramatic highs and desperate lows that accompany a season headed for a mid-table finish, but even they would not have forecast a seven-game winless run to follow the team's six-game winning streak at the start of the campaign.

In the blink of an eye, Lowe’s side had fallen back through the pack and hopes of staying in touch with the teams fighting for automatic promotion soon disappeared. Even though Leeds are now 23 points better off than Preston, Daniel Farke's men may be edged out in the race for the top two by Leicester City, Ipswich Town or even the aforementioned Southampton.

They have been locked in the fight for the promotion places and have been characterised by consistency over the course of the campaign. Preston have been prone to shifts in form. On their day, the Lilywhites have proven to be more than a match for the league’s best teams, the side have beaten both Ipswich and Leeds this season. Yet Lowe has struggled to get his players to fight the tide when the team are short of momentum, and ultimately, when Preston have been faced with sink-or-swim moments trying to sustain a play-off challenge, they have invariably drowned.

Preston need to improve to avoid frustration building

Although Preston have stuttered at the end of successive seasons, the Lilywhites have managed to stay in the play-off shake-up until the final stages, competing against clubs with higher budgets and deeper squads. However, if Lowe’s side are to fall short of the top six again next season, in a similar fashion, PNE fans will inevitably be frustrated.

Supporters of the Lancashire club have become numb to the excitement attached to the Championship play-offs, desensitised after again experiencing another near miss. Lowe must form a squad that can stay the distance across the course of the next Championship campaign to prevent Preston fans from seeing their season end with a similar capitulation to the defeats against Southampton and Sheffield United.