Alex Neil’s take on Preston North End’s win over Stoke City as Daniel Johnson decision explained

Stoke City boss Alex Neil admitted he was tempted to start Daniel Johnson against Preston North End on Saturday.

The Lilywhites ran out 0-2 winners at the bet365 Stadium, with Will Keane scoring both second half goals in the space of six minutes - one from the penalty spot and the other from close range. Former PNE boss, Neil, handed a start to ex-North End man Ben Pearson but named summer recruit Johnson on the bench.

Johnson made the move to Stoke this summer, upon the expiry of his contract at Deepdale - where he had spent 10 years. He has been a mainstay in the Potters side in the early part of the season, but was a substitute against his old club following Stoke’s heavy win over Rotherham United in midweek.

“Yeah, I was,” said Neil, when asked if he was tempted to start Johnson. “It was a really difficult decision, but Josh Laurent scored two goals and assisted one during the week. And I just think that to drop somebody who has done that, is equally as difficult a decision. So yeah, it was a tough one.. we know DJ’s qualities.”

And on signing the Jamaica international this summer, he added: “I think there’s a couple of things. We’ve signed 18 players, so we’ve had a huge amount of turnover in the summer. DJ is a player that I know and trust; I know what his qualities are. He has got experience in the league as well, which is important because we knew we were going to have to go abroad - because of how expensive the domestic market is. To be honest, he was a no brainer really in terms of bringing him in to help us with the squad.

On the game overall, Neil was frustrated to see the game get away from his side after a first half which saw both teams struggle to carve out any clear-cut opportunities. Once Keane netted his second goal, though, the Scot knew how difficult it would be for Stoke given PNE’s defensive qualities.

“I think Preston, over the years, have always been good defensively. They’ve always been strong, in terms of making sure that they see it out and doing the gritty side of the game. They did that extremely well today, but I am more looking at it from our perspective, in terms of moving the ball quicker, slicker and making sure we’ve got attacking threats landing in the box. So yeah, work for us to do.”

He added: “I didn’t think there was much in the game. The game was always going to be about who could pick up the second ball in the middle. If we picked it up, we could find our full-backs and we could double up down the side. If they picked up the second ball, their wing-back then stepped in and then they would go down the side and we’d have to commit and then they put balls in the box.

“The first goal was always going to be vitally important because if Preston get it, they’ve been excellent in terms of seeing the game out and hitting on the transition. I don’t know if it’s a penalty. Wouter is adamant that it wasn’t but I think the fact that he dangles a leg and then he looks at the referee, it makes him make a decision and then unfortunately for us, it wasn’t in our favour – and they score the goal.

“At that point, we know we’re going to have to force the issue and the second goal is the one I’m most disappointed with. It’s a straight ball down the side. We don’t deal with it well enough. From there we have a mountain to climb. We huffed and puffed, we got into some good areas and I thought we had some decent combination played down the sides, but it wasn’t enough.”