A lot has been made by Preston North End fans of their transfer activity this summer, and their worst fears came to light on Saturday afternoon when they returned to Deepdale for the first time since March 2020.

The summer transfer window hadn't been a massively active one for the Lilywhites, and it has been far quieter than the madness of January when several key players departed and a whole host of loanees and permanent additions came in.

Liam Lindsay signed a permanent contract following his temporary signing in February, Sepp van den Berg reached an agreement to come back on loan from Liverpool and perhaps most importantly Daniel Iversen re-joined from Leicester City.

Only two actual fresh faces have signed this summer in Izzy Brown and Matthew Olosunde - the former is out for a long period of time with an achilles injury whilst the latter is also on the sidelines with a knock, so PNE lined up for their clash with the Tigers with the exact same players available to them as on the final day of the previous season.

McAvoy was appointed as Alex Neil's permanent successor on the strength of his results as a caretaker, but some feared that things would not quite be the same considering those wins came mainly against teams with not a lot to play for.

There may have been happiness initially with Emil Riis giving PNE the lead, but it soon turned ugly with Hull getting level by half time, and just after the hour mark a deflected goal put North End in a precarious position.

Whilst chasing an equaliser late on, North End conceded a third goal and then a fourth in stoppage time to make the scoreline look slightly embarrassing.

All summer long fans have been clamouring for the hierarchy to add to the forward line - there's quantity there but not exactly a lot of quality - but the drubbing PNE received from Grant McCann's side proved that there's much more serious concerns on the pitch than a striker.

The defending for all of Hull's goals was poor but it's not even a new centre-back that North End urgently need - it's a Ben Pearson replacement at the base of the midfield.

A few weeks before Pearson left for Bournemouth in January, PNE acquired the highly-rated Ben Whiteman for Doncaster Rovers, but even though he took Pearson's position as the deepest midfielder, it was clear that he was seen as the long-term successor to Paul Gallagher as a playmaker.

The duo in midfield soon became Whiteman and Ryan Ledson, but neither player's best role is sitting in-front of the defence and breaking up play like Pearson did - both men want to get on the ball and ideally move up the pitch with it.

Some have assumed that Ledson can take over the 'Pearson role' because he can put in a tackle but he lacks the positional awareness that his predecessor had - and it was evident on Saturday when Hull bypassed North End's midfield on a number of occasions to create goalscoring opportunities.

When Pearson was in the North End team they had more of a control on games in the middle of the park - the former Manchester United man would intercept and then find another man to try and progress the play up the pitch and he was regarded by former manager Alex Neil as the best player in his position in the Championship - and now supporters can see what is now missing from the current line-up.

Peter Ridsdale has said that aside from chasing a striker North End's transfer business is probably done, however it's never been more clear that the squad needs strengthening and bringing in a new holding midfielder who can protect PNE's defence is very much needed.