John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Norwich would win a gold medal in a World Time-Wasting Championship

However I left the stadium with my dreams of an end-of-season trip to Wembley in the division’s end-of-season knockout competition in tatters, following a late goal which gave our visitors from East Anglia victory in this "do or die" battle for the last coveted play-off spot.

From the opening stages of the game it was evident that Norwich would be content to play out a draw as they wasted so much time at every goalkick and throw-in. They managed to shelve so much of the actual first-half playing time for just one paltry minute of added time that they would have been certain gold medallist if there was a World Time-Wasting Championships.

Our best chance in a tight but entertaining first half came near the end of it when my man of the match Jack Whatmough who, due to our numerous injuries, was playing out of position in midfield, thundered a header against the crossbar .

In the second half the Norwich defence remained composed and we struggled to break them down, looking less likely to score as the game wore on. When the April showers came the atmosphere felt flatter.

This also dampened my spirits and as I watched the rain fall down my thoughts began to drift away from the game as I began to rue my decision to leave my almost dry washing pegged out on the line in my garden.

With this being an all-or-nothing high-stakes game, manager Ryan Lowe rolled the dice as it approached its final quarter of an hour. It really was "win or bust " but his substitutions proved to be ineffective and, unfortunately, it turned out to be bust for our team and the Deepdale faithful.

I must say that following the substitutions I have not seen a North End side with so many players played out of their positions since the bad old days of Graham Westley. For me the strangest one of the change of formation was the playing of Milutin Osmajic at right wing-back. Although we had all four of our centre-forwards on the pitch at the same time it just did not work as they weren’t playing as out-and-out strikers.

It was not a big surprise when Norwich scored and a cue for the online message boards to go into overdrive. If manager Ryan Lowe had played out the 0-0 draw he would have been deemed to have been negative.

People point out the losses to Stoke and Birmingham but even counting this, our form over the last 13 matches since February would have still been almost automatic promotion form if averaged out for the season and all this despite injuries to several of his key players.