The Baggies lost 1-0 to the Lilywhites at Deepdale on Wednesday night, courtesy of an Emil Riis goal conceded in the seventh minute of the game.
West Brom laid siege to the Preston goal after the concession of the early goal, but the Lilywhites have the best defence in the Championship so far in the current campaign, with eight clean sheets recorded before the fixture.
Bruce believes that his charges deserved something from the game, but admitted they made the mistake of conceding very early once more, which left them with a mountain to climb.
The 61-year-old tactician revealed that the emphasis during the week leading up to the game at Deepdale was on not conceding early in the match.
Bruce made a host of changes to his starting line-up and insists it made no difference to helping his side settle their nerves, with the same mistakes which have dogged the Baggies again popping up.
“I didn’t think we deserved the defeat”, Bruce said via his club’s official site.
“Again, the talking point will be the fact we’ve conceded very, very early and given ourselves a mountain to climb.
“It’s all we’ve spoken about for the last week, not conceding early goals.
“We have to be able to give ourselves a chance.
“There seemed a nervousness to us, even though I swapped half of the team.
“Unfortunately, we’ve made the same mistakes as we seem to have done plenty of times this season.”
West Brom are now in the relegation zone after their last and only win in the Championship came against Hull City in August, with just ten points collected from 12 games.
