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'Mountain to climb' - Paul Heckingbottom laments Preston North End's defensive errors in Bolton defeat PNE lost 2-1 on the opening day. Paul Heckkingbottom has given his immediate reaction after Preston North End’s 2-1 defeat at Bolton Wanderers. Sam Dalby and Thierry Gale scored inside the first half hour, before Jusef Erabi latched onto Andy Vukcevic’s cross to pull one back late on, but it wouldn’t spark a comeback. Heckingbottom was frustrated with the defensive errors and how they came about. He told the Lancashire Post: “[I’m] frustrated in lots of ways. Frustrated with the nature of the two goals and the people involved in it, experienced boys who have been really reliable, and the goals were shocking. “They changed the game, they changed the atmosphere. It probably gives them even more energy because we knew we were playing a team that was newly promoted, good atmosphere. I felt that was the difference in the first half. “In transition, they were hungry about them, they were hunting the ball much better than us, so we needed to be better in the second half in lots of ways. We made it a mountain to climb. “I said to the players that I felt we could win the game because we still got in behind them and down the sides of them a lot more than they did [to] us, but we did nothing with it, not positive enough, not direct enough or lack the quality when we did get in. “We let them off the hook in one end and we gave them the opportunities at the other to get the place rocking, but we did better after the break and then when we made the substitutions in particular, I felt we got a lot more control and we had the chances that we didn't take. So, they're the other frustrations.” He continued: “Dan [Iversen] palms the ball out in the middle of the pitch and Liam [Lindsay] doesn't go. When the lad has the shot, you take him shooting from there. I think he probably catches Dan out, he doesn't catch it, but he should go wide with the save and Liam, when he hits the shot, he's four yards closer to our goal than Sam [Dalby] and Sam ends up tapping it in. “Second one, free kick, we spoke a lot about locking them out and make sure they're in counter, particularly the left winger. And we're in a good position, but then when Jordan (Thompson] picks it up and tries to cross it, he sort of mis-kicks it and he goes chasing his mistake and then leaves us spare at the back. “They break on us and then, again, Gale is showing wide and we know he's coming inside, it's a fantastic finish.I don't think Dan can do anything about it, but [we] get beat on the outside and there was a chance.” Heckingbottom opted for a change of shape ahead of the Championship curtain-raiser, switching from playing three centre-backs to a fielding a back four. When asked about how the change of shape affected North End, and their efforts to get back into the game, he said: “You give any team in the Championship a two-goal lead, it's hard and then adding the fact we’re away from home, the energy of a full house, newly promoted stadium, it's tough. “But like I said, I saw enough in the first half of what I didn't like and knew we needed to be better, but also of where we felt we could hurt them to give me the belief that we could do it. And yeah, the big frustration then is the chances at the end that we didn't take.” Erabi’s impact pleased the PNE boss again. He said: “I could have easily started him today. I felt with, to be fair, he's got the physicality for the English game. He's a team player, works his socks off, gets the game. Delighted that what we thought we were bringing in, we have done. “I also thought it added a bit to our squad in terms of how he's aggressive in their penalty box and he's reinforced that, to be fair. I think if we do put the ball in there, he attacks the ball better than our other forwards in that position, Langy does it. So, yeah, pleased that we brought him in.”