Rudd-faced Declan cost Neil’s men dear

HORROR-STRUCK Declan Rudd held his head in his hands after the biggest howler of his career.

The Preston keeper somehow allowed an over-hit pass from Maikel Kieftenbeld to roll between his legs, reviving memories of Peter Enckelman’s famous blunder for Aston Villa at the same end 16 years ago.

There was no one near to challenge Rudd as he attempted to collect the softly rolling ball.

There were celebrations for Kieftenbeld but Rudd will have nightmares for years.

The home side took full advantage with further goals from Jacques Maghoma and Che Adams, neither of which Rudd could do much about.

There was little to suggest that Birmingham were about to produce their biggest win since March in a tightly fought first half which they dominated.

In fact, North End could claim to have come the closest to an opener, with a spectacular overhead kick from Louis Moult pushed out by Lee Camp.

Preston boss Alex Neil refused to put the blame at Rudd’s door. The Preston chief said: “We are not going to make a scapegoat of him.

“He has made a mistake and it has cost us the first goal but we could maybe have gone on to repair it, which we didn’t do.

“There is a lot more that went wrong other than that mistake. As a professional you know you’ve made an error and you have to let it go. He has to put it to the back of his mind and move on.”

Birmingham boss Garry Monk said: “I still haven’t seen it. I walked away, under my breath cursing Kieftenbeld’s pass.

“We were watching the Leeds v Sheffield United game earlier and there was a keeper error. We said we never get those kind of goals – and we did.”