Alan Browne will shrug off PNE penalty woe says Paul Gallagher

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The Irish midfielder hit the outside of the post with the first-half spot-kick.

It proved to be a costly miss when the Rams scored in the second half and held out for a 1-0 victory.

Midfielder Gallagher told the Post: “You can’t blame the lad, he has been magnificent for us this season.

“He is confident and had scored a couple of penalties before .

“Alan is a big enough lad to come back from this strongly.

“We were confident that he would score because he had slotted away the last two.

“He was in tears in the changing rooms after the game.

“I’ve been there as a player as have a lot of the other lads.”

The penalty against Derby was the fifth North End had been awarded this season.

Browne had scored two of them, in the 5-1 FA Cup win at Wycombe and then against Hull in the Championship.

Daniel Johnson put away the other two, against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day and in the 3-0 victory at Nottingham Forest in 
January.

DJ was not on the pitch when Preston were awarded the penalty against Derby.

Gallagher had previously taken penalties for North End in their League One days, the last one he scored being at Sheffield United in the FA Cup in January 2015.

Browne’s penalty miss was not the only chance Preston squandered against Derby.

They had 19 attempts over the 90 minutes but only three of them were on target.

Said Gallagher: “One of the chances fell to myself and I probably hit it too well.

“Paul Huntington volleyed a shot over the bar.

“Maybe with his chance and mine, if we had hit them into the floor they would 
probably have got a deflection and gone in. It was frustrating to say the least.”