Alex Neil was pleased enough with the defensive display against Derby but the boss admitted Preston weren’t quite at it in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat.
Derby did have the better of the chances and secured the win when Matej Vydra’s penalty, awarded when Greg Cunningham tugged back Curtis Davies, had enough on it to beat North End goalkeeper Chris Maxwell.
Having suffered a first Championship defeat under Neil, he told the Official Website: ‘It’s disappointing as for large parts of the game we defended well. In the first half we coped with them well, they had one good chance where we should engage with the ball earlier and David Nugent gets a shot at goal and Maxi makes a good save.’
Neil couldn’t fault the effort but wasn’t so pleased with a lack of incisiveness.
‘The most frustrating thing for me tonight was our use of the ball in the final third. We’d get into really good positions, especially in the first half and there was some great opportunities to slide the ball in, one through to Tom Barkhuizen, and the other was through to Callum Robinson,’ added Neil. ‘The lads worked their socks off as always, our biggest disappointment is the lack of incisiveness in the final third in terms of creating opportunities for ourselves.’
Looking at the penalty Neil said: ‘It’s disappointing when it’s a penalty, particularly when the linesman, who was quite a distance away has given it. I’ve had a look at it, he does pull him back Paul (Huntington) but they’re both tussling with each other early in the move; sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t and unfortunately for us, the penalty was given.’
