'I thought Preston...' - Alex Neil's post-match admission after Millwall's 1-1 draw at Deepdale

Millwall boss Alex Neil gave Preston North End plenty of credit after Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Deepdale.

The two sides, who sat 15th and 14th heading into the game, played out a 1-1 draw under the lights in Lancashire. Strikers were on the score sheet with Mihailo Ivanovic firing in a free-kick to break the deadlock on 40 minutes, but Emil Riis equalised with a magnificent strike from distance.

“I thought it was relatively even in terms of opportunities, but I thought they dominated the ball,” said the former PNE boss. “I thought they were the team that controlled the game in that sense and then I thought it changed.

“Second half they came out quicker than we did. The goal, it's just an opportune moment where Riis has obviously smashed it from 25 yards and it's a great finish. After that, I thought it was a really even game for large spells and probably the last maybe five minutes I thought Preston put a lot of pressure on us.

“But I don't think they had any clear opportunities of note that really caused us issues at that point. So, from our perspective, we know we can certainly play better but I don't think a point's something that can be sniffed at coming here.

“I just don't think we had good enough spells in the game to really cause too much problems for Preston at certain points in the match. So I think you've just got to assess how the game panned out and for us playing against a back three, the last time we played against it wasn't particularly good for us.

“So we changed it and matched them up today. You're always disappointed when you take a goal lead to not win, especially in the manner of the goal. I think the goal kick goes up, they don't really compete, they head it. It's a poor header for us, it lands down and he hits it for a long way but we've got to give him credit. It's a good finish.”