Former Championship striker Sam Parkin has admitted that the defeat to Stoke City was a reality check for Preston North End’s playoff ambitions this season.
Stoke were struggling for results until they went to Preston and beat them 2-1 away from home over the weekend.
It boosted their chances of staying up in the Championship this season but damaged Preston’s hopes of sneaking into the playoff spots at the end of the campaign.
Preston have games coming up against Championship strugglers Plymouth, Rotherham and Birmingham City in the coming weeks and they were hoping that starting against Stoke, they could build up some momentum that would catapult them into the playoff spots.
However, Parkin feels that the defeat to Stoke was a reality check and showed that getting into the playoffs this season would be asking for too much from this current Preston team.
He said on the What The EFL Podcast: “I think after that Coventry performance for Preston a few weeks ago where they won 3-0 and blew them out of the water in the first half, there was that kind of optimism that this run could fire them into the playoffs.
“It’s a little bit of a reality check.
“It’s probably realistic that it’s going to be too tough an ask for them to get into the playoffs.”
Preston are sitting ninth in the Championship standings and are only five points off the playoff spots.
