Soccer
Paul Heckingbottom says Lewis Gibson red card helped Preston secure cup progress
Paul Heckingbottom believed Lewis Gibson’s sending off helped Preston produce a better performance in his side’s comeback penalty shoot-out victory against Huddersfield in the Carabao Cup first round.
Preston were down to 10 men, after Gibson saw red for dragging Ashley Fletcher down, and it allowed Huddersfield to build momentum and take the lead through Radinio Balker, before Yusef Erabi scored the equaliser that took it to penalties.
Preston won the shoot-out, giving Heckingbottom a lot of confidence in the season opener.
The Preston manager said: “I would never have picked this if I was going to say what the perfect afternoon is, but I think the sending off allowed us to get more out of the game in a strange way.
“We are coming to a different venue, it felt like pre-season even though it was a cup game. I would have rather had a more tenacious, up-tempo game and the sending off turned that into that, because we sort of became the underdogs.
“We showed a lot of qualities that we need to show in the Championship, and to get through to the next round is good.”
Huddersfield were moments away from securing a win against higher league opposition, but a painful penalty shoot-out defeat has given Martin Drury a lot to ponder.
Drury said: “I felt like we were in control but it was disappointing to see how the second half felt.
“The main thing for me to learn is that we need to be better with the ball and have more control.
“I don’t care if they are Premier League, Championship, League One or Two, if you are 1-0 up against 10 men, you should win the game of football. We shouldn’t lose the game because of what we do with the ball.”
