‘I don’t want to dwell on it’ – Preston boss Lowe supplies verdict on 2-0 defeat at Millwall
BY ALEX GRACE
Preston manager Ryan Lowe was disappointed with the goals his side conceded in their 2-0 defeat to Millwall this afternoon.
The Lions secured their first win in five Championship games with a 2-0 success over the Lancashire outfit thanks to Tom Bradshaw and Zian Flemming scoring their 15th and 14th goals of the season respectively.
After only a second defeat in their last seven matches – winning five of those – Lowe, 44, was impressed with his side’s overall performance.
“Disappointed in terms of the result,” said Lowe. “The performance was good. I don’t want to dwell on it too long because there is another game on Wednesday.
“I’m disappointed with the two goals. We played some fantastic stuff, there were good moments in that game. If we get one, we probably get two. Take nothing away from Millwall. We knew what to expect, we knew what they were going to do.
“We got undone by ourselves not dealing with two balls coming into the box and not being clinical enough in front of goal.”
Preston had 61 per cent possession but failed to trouble George Long on a regular basis throughout the 90 minutes. The Lions stopper made an important double save in the first half but after that was rarely called on.
“It was that clinical edge in both boxes,” said Lowe. “At the top end, the attacking end, we weren’t clinical enough. We knew what we were coming up against in a Millwall team. They are solid and resolute in what they do and that’s what they were today.
“They were effective in two moments. It’s disappointing because we’ve been solid and resolute ourselves in dealing with those balls because we’ve come against a bit of that, but Millwall have a bit more quality than the teams we’ve played of late. We knew that and we said that. They found two moments, and we didn’t.”
The defeat leaves North End three points behind Millwall with four games to go .
Lowe said: “All we need to do is give ourselves a fighting chance. As I’ve said all along, we want to try and finish in the top half. Yes, there is a lot of excitement because of where we are. We just have to let this one go and move on as quickly as we can. I don’t think it was a bad performance.
“If we can pick points up like we have done, we went three back-to-back (wins), nine points in more or less a week, that’s massive. Come Wednesday and Saturday we will get a better idea of where we could finish.”