Paul Gallagher's honest assessment of his performance in Preston North End's win over Millwall
The 34-year-old laid on the first two goals for Alan Browne and Tom Barkhuizen but then felt his levels dropped after the interval, PNE needing Andrew Hughes’ deflected free-kick to make sure of a 3-2 win.
After a cagey opening 37 minutes Gallagher drove at the stubborn Millwall backline with his pass going under the feet of Lukas Nmecha and finding Browne.
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Hide AdFive minutes later the midfielder’s perfectly-weighted ball from inside his own half released Barkhuizen who beat Jordan Archer one-on-one.
“I thought it was a mixed bag from me to be honest,” said Gallagher.
“I think I had my boots on the wrong feet in the second half. I couldn’t pay water as the saying goes!
“I did have a shot not long after half-time and thought was that destined to go in and the ‘keeper has plucked it out of the top corner.
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Hide Ad“That’s me being serious, I set standards for myself and even in the first half I could have played forward a bit more.
“Because as you saw, when I do, we’ve got the players there to score goals.
“Tom Barkhuizen makes a great run and it’s a great finish. We have quite a good relationship. He knows if I’ve got the ball he can make a run and I’ll try and find him.”
Two goals in five minutes late in the opening period may have put PNE in command of a drab game but they had to go toe-to-toe with Millwall in a more open second period.
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Hide AdAlex Neil’s side are now closer to the play-offs than the bottom three after just one defeat in their last 12 games.
“You know what you’re going to get from Millwall,” said Gallagher.
“They are going to put balls in your box and ask questions of you.
“Even going at half-time 2-0 up we weren’t happy with the performance and knew we could play a lot better.
“But in this league you just need to take the wins.
“Not many people will remember that game in a few days, it wasn’t the best of games.
“It’s about the three points which gets us looking a bit more up the table rather than behind us.”