GIROUD SHATTERS PRESTON DREAMS Gunners strike at the death
SIMON GRAYSON was proud of his Preston side despite narrowly losing out to a lastminute goal against Premier League giants Arsenal. have begrudged us if we’d drawn the game as well because the performance for the first half was as good as I’ve had as my team since I’ve been here.”
The Championship side took a deserved seventh-minute lead when Aiden McGeady fed in Jordan Hugill, who went down under a challenge, but the loose ball fell to Robinson who slotted past David Ospina.
The Lilywhites nearly added a second after 20 minutes when Hugill’s cross was met by Robinson, but his header was blocked by Shkodran Mustafi.
Robinson broke down the right in behind the Arsenal rearguard in the 24th minute to tee up Hugill but
Callum Robinson handed Preston an early lead as the Lilywhites gave the Gunners a torrid opening 45 minutes, but Arsenal rallied through Aaron Ramsey’s thunderbolt after the break before Olivier Giroud’s late winner.
And though Lilywhites boss Grayson admitted disappointment at the last-gasp defeat, he branded the first-half performance as good as any he has seen during his time in the Deepdale dugout.
“It was difficult to speak to the players and what to say really,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of how they’ve played.
“We’ve made a very strong team look very ordinary in the first half, but obviously the other side, we wanted to try and win a match or at least draw a match and we’re disappointed we’ve conceded so late.
“It wasn’t what we deserved. Nobody would have begrudged us if we’d won the game. Nobody would