Naismith disappointed to see Hatters outrun by Preston in Deepdale loss

Town defender Kal Naismith was disappointed to see his side outrun by hosts Preston North End during their 2-0 defeat at Deepdale on Saturday.

Going into the game on the back of a five-game unbeaten run which had propelled them to fifth in the Championship, hopes were high of Town solidifying their place in the top six against a side who had struggled for consistency this term.

However, a poor first half saw Luton trailing 2-0 at the break, as although they had the odd moment in the second period, Nathan Jones' side never seriously looked like fighting back in the manner they had done for a point when conceding first against Blackburn, Derby and Bristol City, almost doing the same at West Bromwich Albion and Bournemouth too.

Naismith said: “It’s hard to process after a defeat, to think about why we lost and how we lost, it’s just that initial feeling of really, really disappointed.

“We just weren’t ourselves today, never did the basics.

"Preston hadn’t been on a great run, but you’ve always got to respect Preston when you come here.

“I’ve never ever had an easy game here and I don’t think a lot of teams get easy games here at all.

“It’s a tough place to come, we had to respect that and just do the basics.

"They were a bit better at that than we were today and that’s the disappointing thing because that’s got us where we are.

“There will be reasons, we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about it and we’ll go further into it and try to find out why and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.

“It’s hard initially after the game to put your finger on it and say exactly what, just the feeling playing in the game was we never ran as much as we usually run.

"I know that sounds an easy thing to say, but we’re usually high energy, teams don’t really run more than us.

"It will be interesting to see, I think they ran a bit more than us which is disappointing.”

Following an opening 25 minutes in which neither side looked like scoring, Preston took the lead when Town didn’t clear their lines and top scorer Emil Riis hammered an angled drive from an almost impossible single into the top corner.

Naismith continued: “There's not much in the game, you’ve got to respect them, come away from home and just stay tight.

"If it’s 0-0 at half time, then it’s fine at places like this as it’s really tough to come to.

"We should clear our lines better, they get their goal and then to be fair, there's still nothing in the game.

"Second half, we came out, gave it a right go, but just every single player to a man was just a tiny bit off it, you can’t be in the Championship, simple as that.”

Naismith almost put Luton level five minutes before the break as James Bree’s free kick was met by Glen Rea, home keeper Daniel Iversen saving well, the on-loan Leicester City keeper then blocking the Scot’s follow-up too.

He said: “The goalie’s got up, I managed to get contact on it, clean contact, and almost too clean, it’s straight at him and bounced off his chest.

"Apart from that, we just weren’t good when we tried to stretch, and as I say we were a little bit off it, but we’ll analyse and go again.”

Rather than go in 1-0 down, Luton were breached again on the stroke of half time as Sonny Bradley dived in on Ali McCann to concede a penalty that Riis converted.

Although turning round with a two-goal deficit, Naismith had thought Luton had it within them to come back, adding: "It’s a horrible time to concede, but this club has come back from two down on more than one occasion, so we knew we were still in the game.

"It was a disappointing time to concede, but there was no way we thought we were out of it, we came out and gave it a go, but we were just a bit off it.

“It just didn’t quite drop, but one of the chances maybe drops and goes in, it changes the game.

"Would we have deserved it? I think on the balance of play, Preston have deserved the win.

"It’s disappointing but credit to them, they’re a good team and for as long as I play in the Championship, for a team coming here it will be tough.

"You’ve got to respect that and you’ve got to be right at your game, at least eight or nine-ys and I don’t think there were many of us who performed the way we have been."

Half time substitute Admiral Muskwe almost pulled one back minutes after coming on, denied by Iversen's outstretched hand, the Danish keeper making an even better stop late on, somehow turning Naismith's deflected drive from distance over the top.

The defender added: "I just tried to have a shot, it took a big deflection and credit to the goalie, it’s a great save."