'Let's be fair' - What Paul Heckingbottom said straight after Preston North End's 2-1 loss to Leeds United

Preston North End were beaten 2-1 by Leeds United in Saturday’s early kick-off at Elland Road.

The home side hit the front after three minutes through Manor Solomon but Aston Villa loan man Kaine Kesler-Hayden equalised for PNE, almost instantly, with a sublime strike. Daniel Farke’s men were ahead again before the quarter-of-an-hour mark, though, as Jayden Bogle slotted in from close range.

That proved to be enough for the hosts to clinch victory - a vital one in the automatic promotion race, with Sheffield United losing at Plymouth Argyle. North End created very few goal scoring moments in the second half and the Preston boss had few complaints with the end result.

Post-match, Heckingbottom said: “We knew it was going to be tough. Really disappointed with the two goals we conceded. I thought they were poor on our part, but if you look at the whole game, Leeds had the chance. Pleased with our response, really enjoyed the second half - felt it was end-to-end - but yeah, they created the better chances than us. When you come here, you've got to make sure that you defend as well as you possibly can, be really clinical and you get the moments.

“How brave we were, how we tried to pass the ball, how we tried to take the game to them, really pleased with that. But, we couldn't create the opportunities that they did. Jayden (Meghoma) will will learn from that (second goal). When you're the full-back, or the outside defender... because we've got two players there, Jayden Bogle is on the outside, then he nips in between and you just can't let whoever's in that position get in front of you, because they're always going to have the opportunity.

“He'll learn from that.. one of the reasons he's come here is for those moments. It's been a strength of ours all season, how we've defended the box, but just disappointed with our two goals today. You know if you can keep that one goal in it, as we mentioned in our home game last time, you're going to get those opportunities. We had opportunities to push and press, but they defended their box well - we couldn't quite open them up. It would have been nice to get the second goal where Robbie, Mads and Ben worked the corner really well.

“After a goal, you've got to be brave and positive when you get opportunities to create chances from set plays as well. Overall, delighted with the effort and the commitment from the players, but Leeds had the better chances... let's be fair. Really good goal (we scored), but it's the build-up... we need to be brave and pass the ball, and we did that. We found the spare man.

“We know it's an area we want to improve next season, the goal scoring, creating chances, and there's lots of things we need to do to do that. But one thing we've consistently done is get players in those areas; more often than not, that's not been the end result. We've either faltered on the final pass and not created the chance, or missed the chance. We've been in those areas so many times this season and that's been a good, consistent thing. Now we need better quality and better moments.”

“There’s definitely a mental aspect.”

Heckingbottom had warned, in his pre-match press conference, about the fast starts Leeds make to their matches - especially at home. Daniel Farke’s team came flying out of the blocks, roared on by the Elland Road faithful. Solomon’s strike was quality but there was still frustration on the PNE manager’s part.

“That’s why I’m disappointed,” said Heckingbottom. “It's one of our strengths and today it wasn't, but they are, that's what they do. We all know that, prepared for that. There's definitely a mental aspect, preparing for it, but we've got lots of players who have been here before and played here and experienced that. So, that's been one frustration and disappointment about the day.

“I enjoyed watching the second half, especially when it gets open, you know you're going to give a bit of space away to them and they've got really good players. But we were brave, we kept trying to pass the ball, we just couldn't create the chances that they created.”

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