Preston North End boss felt his side deserved more against Nottingham Forest

Paul Huntington's goal hits the back of the net

The PNE manager reasoned his side had done enough to win the game despite them having to rely on a 75th minute equaliser from Paul Huntington, with teenager Ben Brereton having put Forest ahead on the counter-attack.

Neil said: "I felt we did enough to win it.

"Some of our performances here of late have been good but I thought today was probably better in certain aspects for me.

"I thought arguably we played better today than we had done against both QPR and Sheffield United.

"It was frustrating, we just lacked that little bit of incisiveness at the top end of the pitch.

"We got in some great areas - Tom Barkhuizen got behind on numerous occasions in the first half, Callum Robinson got into good areas.

"However, the quality of the ball at times was poor."

Paul Gallagher shields the ball against Nottingham Forest

Forest hit North End on the break to go in front in the 58th minute, Neil arguing the case for the hosts to have been awarded a free-kick before the counter-attack started.

Neil said: "Callum Robinson had the ball, he shifted it on to his left foot and had a shot which the lad put his hand up to and it hits his arm, it should have been a free-kick on the edge of the box.

"It wasn't given, the game has played on, Brereton has broken with the ball and Paul Gallagher went to press him.

"He went past him and Alan Browne then had the chance to recover once they had played a couple of passes.

"Alan should probably have brought him down.

"Then the next bit which was disappointing for us was that three of our defenders went one way and one went the other, that was the lad who played Brereton on.

"They managed to go through and get their goal.

"Forest set up to hit us on the counter, we made one error which was that one and they got their goal from it - fair play in that respect.

"But by how much we had in the game, the amount of opportunities and crosses into the box, amount of the pressure, how well we moved the ball at times, we deserved to win the match.

"I'm going away with a bit of disappointment for my players because of their effort and how well they played at times was excellent.

"It was an excellent finish from Paul Huntington for the equaliser, he has been first-class for us this season.

"The lads at the top end of the pitch found it difficult, so we relied on a centre-half to get us a goal."