Daniel Farke pays Preston North End compliment despite 'time wasting' at Leeds United

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke credited Preston North End for their performance at Elland Road on Sunday.

The home side snatched all three points in the 94th minute, with substitute Joel Piroe's penalty earning a 2-1 comeback win. Liam Millar had teed up Will Keane for the opening goal inside 70 seconds, as Ryan Lowe's side stunned the Elland Road faithful.

Leeds hit back within five minutes though, as Dan James popped up at the back post to head in the equaliser. The game looked to be heading for a share of the spoils, but Ryan Ledson was penalised for handball late in the day and up stepped the Leeds front man.

Post-match, Farke said: "You need to find a good balance. It's important you find the next gear but do it in a smart way. Credit to Preston, they played with intensity, structured very well, experienced, they know what to do, to be there with a nasty foul to provoke us. I don't accuse them, it's what experienced sides do.

"Going down to give themselves a moment to recover and break the rhythm. It was a long time before the first yellow for time wasting. It was important we kept our nerve, stayed cool, played with our tempo and this is what we did. For that I think it was a well-deserved win."

The Leeds chief also revealed that PNE's late win on Boxing Day, at Deepdale, had been part of the pre-match inspiration in the home side's dressing room.

He added: "First of all to give a little bit of an answer to the first leg when there was a pretty doubtful red card and we had to play underload and lots of celebration after their goals and after the game. No one was was definitely happy that we got this red for Illan and he was criticised a lot for giving the referee a decision to make, but it was also obviously not not a red card.

"We had the celebration scenes of them in the mind, rolling around the floor and something like this. It's important that you take this also into the game without being over motivated and we tried to find the right balance. I'm not accusing Preston at all, a very intense, emotional, experienced side, only compliments to Ryan."