Preston midfielder Alan Browne had some harsh words for himself and his teammates as they were battered by Luton Town 3-0 at Kenilworth Road.

The Lilywhites were outfought and outclassed on their trip to Bedfordshire, as a hat-trick from James Collins secured another huge three points on their own turf for the Hatters.

It seemed like having 2,000 fans inside the stadium really helped Luton, as Preston couldn't seem to get to grips with the game at all, their hosts restricting them to just four shots in 90 minutes.

Compare that to how Preston fared against Middlesbrough in midweek and it was a completely different story.

Alex Neil went with the same starting 11 that steamrolled Neil Warnock's outfit but the attacking foursome spearheaded by Jayden Stockley just didn't work as well as it did three days prior.

Veteran defender Paul Huntington was hooked at half time after failing to cope with Hatters talisman Collins, and replacement Jordan Storey didn't fare any better either against the 30-year-old Ireland international.

North End had the best away record in the entire league before this latest crushing defeat, which would have made the result sting that little bit more, with many players having a lot of questions to answer.

It was Lilywhites captain Browne who fronted up to the media post-game, and he didn't hold back in his assessment of how they played.

"It's embarrassing and as captain of that today, it's inexcusable," Preston's number eight said.

"It was embarrassing to walk off the pitch having performed like that and come away with a result like that. Not one of us played well today and the only positive is that we literally can't get any worse than that.

"We didn't play football, we weren't competitive, aggressive and literally had nothing from start to finish. There wasn't even a five minute spell where we got on top, just rubbish all the way through.

"It was just terrible, we got what we deserved and in every aspect of the game they beat us, in every position on the pitch - literally in everything we were second best.

"I don't think we've ever played that bad."

The Verdict

It's not often you get a player being that honest about his team and how they played.

But in this particular case it was deserved as North End deserved absolutely nothing out of the game, with manager Alex Neil admitting that he's never seen his team play so badly in his tenure.

Rest assured they will have to up their game in midweek as they take a trip to South Yorkshire to play another team who will press them in Barnsley - they can't possibly play any worse than yesterday though, can they?