Preston boss Phil Brown branded his side's 4-0 thumping at Millwall as "the worst performance" of his reign.
Millwall defender Darren Purse headed the hosts in front in the 42nd minute and Josh McQuoid added a second two minutes later.
After the break John Marquis added a third and James Henry's penalty sealed the rout to leave Preston five points from safety with only three games remaining.
North End boss Brown said: "If we play like that again then we will be going down. But you won't be getting that repeat performance I can assure you.
"I can't answer why we got that display.
"That is the worst performance I have seen in my time in charge and it was completely unacceptable."
North End have shown signs of improvement in recent weeks and Brown admitted he did not see such a poor display coming.
He added: "We prepared well, we trained well, but when we got here we got outmuscled, outbattled and outplayed.
"You know what you're going to get when you come here and we just didn't stand up to it.
"I think there may have been a foul on the keeper in the first goal, but there is nothing you can do about that, the second and the third were the killers.
"There are nine points left to play for and we're going for all of them."
Preston now host promotion pushing Cardiff City at Deepdale on bank holiday Monday knowing that a win is vital if they are to complete the great escape.
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