Paul Heckingbottom reaction as Preston North End exit Carabao Cup in Everton loss
The North End manager on a ‘difficult’ night.
Paul Heckingbottom has given his reaction after a 4-0 loss to Everton meant his Preston North End bowed out of the Carabao Cup.
A Thierno Barry hat trick and a Brennan Johnson goal gave Everton the win.
Heckingbottom told the Lancashire Post: “Difficult one for lots of reasons, it's clear we've picked a team, we've played a shape that we've not played while we’ve been here, but at the minute we're putting out fires with the teams we're picking.
“I was thinking of Charlton ahead, it was probably the most rotation we could have got, but we still wanted to be competitive in the game and we were OK.
“I thought they started really brightly and probably the physicality and pace of their players surprised ours.
“When we did win the ball back, I felt we gave it away too cheaply, too often in the first 10-15 minutes, then we settled, felt we grew into the game, [conceded] a poor goal from our point of view.
“And then the biggest frustration was we've just got the lads lined up to come on and we've conceded the second goal, then it's difficult because we're not really bringing attacking players on, we're bringing midfielders on, playing one or two out position again, and in a game when you're chasing, that's not great.”
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Heckingbottom voiced his frustrations with the nature of the goals conceded, particularly the three in the second half.
“[Vitalii] Mykolenko gets in behind Thierry [Small] for the first. The second one, Lee [Nicholls] makes a save, it ricochets back down and Barry knocks it in.
“We've got plenty of bodies back, we've got a 3v3, why would we leave a runner who gets in? So that's sloppy, I know it's fortunate how it goes in from them, but it's just really sloppy from us.
“The third one's a break, which should be dealt with, and then the fourth one's really poor, you get out-fought in the middle of the park and Johnson gets in and runs on the outside.
“The mitigating circumstance is that we're playing against a higher calibre of player. There were one or two things in those moments which don't help you keep clean sheets.”
Ali McCann was forced off with five minutes of normal time left to play, with what looks like a pulled hamstring.
Heckingbottom says he is ‘frustrated’ that McCann went off injured and says he will be assessed soon. Asked if this impacts his transfer plans in the week ahead, the PNE boss said: “We needed a midfielder anyway.”