Preston were beaten 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday afternoon – and Frankie McAvoy may have been cursing not being able to bring on Seani Maguire.
North End fell to a Ben Brereton Diaz goal at Ewood Park, with the Chilean striker burying a header past Daniel Iversen.
It’s another derby day defeat for North End, who also lost to Blackpool in October.
The terrible weather was a factor in a difficult game, but – without trying to sound harsh – the league table won’t care about that.
McAvoy threw on Daniel Johnson and Scott Sinclair to try and change the game, but it didn’t really work.
The final substitution had to be used on Matthew Olosunde, as the defender went off with a groin injury and was replaced by Ryan Ledson.
Expecting Olosunde to last 90 minutes in his first game of the season was outrageous in itself, and the injury wasn’t a huge shock.
McAvoy has now told the Lancashire Evening Post that he was hoping to bring on striker Seani Maguire with his last change.
Yet with Olosunde coming off, Maguire couldn’t come on in a frustrating turn of events for McAvoy.
“We changed it when we brought on Scotty Sinclair and Daniel Johnson,” said McAvoy.
“Unfortunately Matthew Olosunde tweaked his groin which meant the plan for the third substitute had to change. Sean Maguire was the next call but instead we had to put Ryan Ledson on for Matthew,” he added.