But McNaughton says they are better equipped this year to avoid any repeats.
"If you've seen us over the last few years, it's teams like this we seem to struggle against," he said.
"Teams that are in the bottom half and fighting for their lives - it becomes difficult.
"They'll set up their stall probably to defend and look to hit us on the counter attack which is always difficult, especially if you don't get a good start."
Second-place Cardiff are looking re-ignite their automatic promotion push following a November where they won just one of their five matches.
Two of the three defeats during the month came from the two teams sitting either side of the Bluebirds in the table, third place Swansea City and leaders Queens Park Rangers.
But now they face opposition at the opposite end of the table with Preston coming to the Cardiff City Stadium looking for their first win since 23 October when they beat fellow strugglers Crystal Palace.
Boss Darren Ferguson's side have won just four of their 19 Championship games this season and are already five points adrift of safety.
McNaughton, though, is confident it will be Cardiff who can take the three points and close the gap over QPR whose match at Hull has been postponed.
"I think the main difference this season is we've got the fire power to break defences down," he added.
"In previous years, if the one or two strikers that we had up front weren't firing on all cylinders, we struggled. I think we've got more options going forward now which makes life a bit easier.
"We've got to lift our performance from last week and just need to be positive.
"At the end of the day, we want to get out of this division and we're going to have to treat every game as three points."
Source: BBC Sport
Source: BBC Sport