Speaking after the defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd round, manager Alan Irvine was determined to take the positives from the game and revealed that it was a great education for his team. Pitching his Championship play-off hopefuls up against the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres was a big test, especially for the younger players in his squad.
Fernando Torres made his comeback from a hamstring injury on Saturday at Deepdale after coming off the bench to score Liverpool's second goal in stoppage time but Alan Irvine was pleased to see him on the team sheet.
"I was delighted to see him (Torres) on the bench but I would also have been delighted to see him on the pitch because it's a fantastic education for our players. The likes of young Sean St Ledger to play against Fernando Torres is fantastic, and brilliant for his development.
"People say whether I was disappointed to see Steven Gerrard was paying? Definitely not because, since this draw was made our players have been very excited about it. What they are excited about is playing against the Liverpool stars and that's what they got, the opportunity to do that.
Alan Irvine will be using the footage of the Liverpool game to educate his players:
"We'll dissect the game as we always do but it will be from a slightly different perspective because there are so many things that we can learn from how Liverpool play, both in possession and without possession.
"Liverpool are a fantastic team and I use the word 'team' deliberately because they all know the jobs whether they have the ball or not. We can learn so much from that and if we can take a little bit out of this that makes us better then terrific."
The former Everton assistant manager will be hoping that his team can learn quickly as they face a difficult trip to the midlands to take on Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers.