Sean Maguire frustrated as fine solo goal counts for nothing in Preston's defeat to Brentford

Sean Maguire fires home Preston's first equaliser in their 3-2 defeat to Brentford.

ALSO READ: Alex Neil frustrated as PNE slip up against BrentfordThe Irishman levelled things up at 1-1 with his fourth of the season after his run and shot beat Daniel Bentley shortly before half-time.

But Alex Neil’s side came out on the wrong side of a back and forth second half, Ollie Watkins grabbing the winner just two minutes after Tom Barkhuizen had scored PNE’s second equaliser of the day.

“The result at the end of the day matters,” said Maguire.

Maguire is booked for diving by referee David Coote.

“I would have taken three points without scoring.

“It was personally nice to get the goal right before half-time and I thought we had the momentum in the first five or 10 minutes of the second half.

“I felt we didn’t deserve to lose the game but we didn’t deserve to win it either.

“We didn’t do enough to hurt them in the final third of the pitch. We got two good goals but we’re disappointed all around.”

Maguire lasted 77 minutes on his return from a hamstring injury picked up at Fulham two weeks ago, international team mate Daryl Horgan taking his place for the closing stages.

“Coming back from injury after missing the game last week I didn’t think it was my best performance and towards 60 or 70 minutes I felt a little heavy legged,” admitted the 23-year-old.

“My legs were starting to tire and that’s probably due to not training much for the last couple of weeks.

“Both hamstrings were cramping up and the gaffer asked me if I had much left and I told him I was probably best coming off.”

Maguire’s afternoon had started in surprising fashion with a booking for diving less than two minutes in from referee David Coote, something which left the front man bemused.

“He left his foot out and I thought he was going to foul me so I went down,” he said.

“It was kind of 50-50 and I thought he just going to not give the foul.

“It was a strange one after two minutes.

“I felt there were two or three times in the game where he didn’t give free-kicks and he didn’t give bookings.

“I just take it on the chin and carry on.”