Paul Heckingbottom explains Milutin Osmajic substitution in gut wrenching 2-2 draw with Cardiff City

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom wanted to focus on the positives despite his side’s sucker-punch 2-2 draw with Cardiff City.

The Lilywhites took the lead after 19 minutes through Milutin Osmajic and restored it when Stefan Thordarson headed home from a Mads Frokjaer cross - after Bluebirds substitute Will Alves had equalised for the visitors. But, in the 94th minute, another sub in Yakou Meite popped up unmarked in the box and converted from close range.

Post-match, Heckingbottom said: “I feel a lot different in terms of performance to what I did at the weekend so, really pleased, but you get punished when you switch off. I did feel comfortable seeing the game out but we switched off, left him, it's a mistake, it's an error, but it's like I said to the boys in there.. we did more than enough at the other end.

“So, we can't just look at that one error, we have to consider the other opportunities. It's a frustrating one but pleased with the performance... lots of things about it I really enjoyed. I thought we were really dominant. You think the frustration when they score that equaliser, which is a big deflection, but I thought we responded really well again then and took the game to them.

“We changed shape and went to the four-diamond-two, to get more bodies at the top end and score a really, really good second goal. Pleased with so many elements of that, but we never got that two-goal gap. You always want the second goal and you prepare this stage of the season - this is why I love it - everyone's fighting, so whenever there's life in the opposition they'll throw everything at you.

“They're scrapping for the points; I felt 2-0 would have kicked the life out of them a little bit... 3-1 would have. But while we're creating chances and missing chances we're also giving them a lift, so that was a big thing. I felt like we would have taken the game too far away from them at that point.”

Heckingbottom was pleased with the clinical edge shown by Osmajic for the deadlock-breaker. He took equal satisfaction from seeing Thordarson arrive in the box to score his third goal of the season. The Iceland international is a player the PNE boss has always seen potential in - and Heckingbottom doesn’t see any reason why the number 22 can’t contribute regularly with goals.

“He's (Osmajic) a 20-goal-a-season striker easily,” said Heckingbottom. “He's missed too many games... suspensions, injuries, illness, so we need to keep him fit and on the pitch a lot more, because you can see his threat. He had other opportunities as well today but I like his all-round game at the minute. He's trying to improve his link-up play, holding the ball up, which I think people can see now as well.

“That gives us more of a platform and then likewise he'll probably get more chances at the other end so yeah, pleased with him. I hope so (Thordarson can keep scoring)... the goal is really good. Obviously, his role changed slightly because we changed shape.

“We passed the ball really quickly, lose the ball, regain it quickly, then play really quick and because we've gone centrally, really narrow, it means Mads (Frokjaer) can deliver from a better area, and Stef is in there because he's been trying to link with the forwards. That's why I really enjoyed the goal. It's everything that we need to be better at next season; everything that we'd like to be.”

“We stopped that first pass and were able to keep pressure on them.”

One hot topic of discussion post-match, among supporters, was the decision to take Osmajic off on 77 minutes and introduce Liam Lindsay.

On that, Heckingbottom said: “I think we pre-empted it because you know what's coming at this stage of the season. We'd changed to the four-diamond-two and we just had two full backs then, and only two centre backs. They'd put Meite on, they'd gone Chambers to right back, O'Dowda, so we knew they were going to put six forward. It was just more pre-empting that.

“The first thing you have to do is stop them playing and they change shape, become more 4-4-2 and it just makes it really comfortable for us against that shape. We then push Sam more central, he finds the space after regaining the first pass and yeah, what we didn't want to do - which I didn't like in Derby game when we changed shape - is lose control.

“We were 2-0 down though so there's nothing to lose (at Derby) but always, in the back of mind, you know you can just lose control. And even though you're going for it, if you make that first pass out too easy for them, the game's gone and you're dead and that's what you've always got to be wary of. So yeah, I thought the lads did it really well today when we went back to the 3-5-2. We stopped that first pass and were able to keep pressure on them.”

Your next PNE read: Preston North End player ratings vs Cardiff City