Josh Earl's first professional goal ruined by Preston North End result

The PNE academy product scored his side’s second of the day, to put them into the lead having been 1-0 down.

In the space of four second half minutes however the R’s got themselves level and then back into the lead as the Lilywhites left the capital with nothing.

Lyndon Dykes netted the first of the game for Mark Warburton’s side before Emil Riis equalised.

Earl made it 2-1 before Jimmy Dunne and Ilias Chair turned the game on its head.

The 22-year-old left back got on the scoresheet for the first time in 78 profressional games, 52 in North End colours.

“It’s bitter-sweet,” he said.

“It’s nice to get my first goal but at the end of the day it means nothing if we’ve not won the game.

“I’m happy to get my first goal.

“I really enjoy getting forward, I think I can bring a lot getting forward but also I can get back in time defensively as well.

“At the moment I’m really enjoying that about my role.

“I was in the right place at the right time.

“I was happy to get my first professional goal because it has taken me a while but at the same time it doesn’t mean anything from today.

“If we had won the game I’d be over the moon but we haven’t won the game, we haven’t seen the game out.

“So I can’t be overly happy about it.”

The defeat ended North End’s nine game unbeaten run in all competitions, having drawn their last five league games.

They face a long wait to put it right too as the international break looms.

Earl doesn’t think PNE’s play merited nothing from the game and was left aggrieved with some of the officials’ decisions on the day.

He said: “I think we deserved something from it, I know we conceded three goals.

“It was never a free kick and for me, the ball had gone out for their third goal.

“At the start of the second half we battered them, we were all over them.

“We are all gutted that we didn’t come away with anything, we’ve gone 2-1 up in the second half and looked like the better team.

“If we play like that we will get a lot more wins than losses throughout the season.

“The start to the second half was exactly what we wanted, we got the goal, went 2-1 up and we were on top for a while after that.

“The ball wasn’t sticking for them and they weren’t passing out from the back and I thought we played really well.

“We had a couple of chances, myself included, to put another one past them and if we do that then the game is dead.”

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