KELHAM O'HANLON described it as North End's worst first half of the season.

Whether it was that bad is debatable - the start of the season was pretty poor remember - but in terms of timing, a dip in performance arrived at the worst possible moment.

Whereas before Sunday's defeat, getting into the playoffs was in North End's hands, they now need to win virtually every game - and hope one of their rivals fluffs it.

And with teams like Burnley squad strengthening with Paul Gascoigne - who watched from the sidelines - that does seem unlikely.

Gazza will be quite pleased with what he saw in the first half. Stan Ternent's men dominated, and new loan signing David Johnson scored on his debut.

After Marlon Beresford pulled off a great from a Chris Lucketti free header, he sent a long ball which was back-passed by Lee Cartwright to David Lucas.

He was harried by Johnson into miskicking to Ian Moore, whose lob gave Lucas no chance.

Johnson missed a glorious chance but then made amends in the 25th minute, outrunning the defence to reach Alan Moore's free-kick and finding the bottom corner of the net.

Burnley should have wrapped the game up in the 31st minute when Ian Moore beat the offside trap but elected to shoot straight at Lucas.

North End woke up in the second half but only after surviving another Ian Moor onslaught. Fortunately, the ball got stuck under his feet.

On 55 minutes, David Healy shot wide - he will know he could have done much better with that chance.

Then on 60 minutes, only another superb save from Beresford denied Dicksonn Etuhu. Nine minutes later Beresford blocked Cresswell's diving header from an Etuhu cross.

North End pulled their goal back on 84 minutes when Ian Anderson drilled home a goal made by Etuhu's cross. It was enough though.

Only three points would have been good enough on Sunday - and Preston didn't even get one.