NEIL SLAMS ‘SOFT AND FLOWERY’ SIDE
Cotterill’s strugglers dominate North End
PRESTON boss Alex Neil criticised his players for a lack of fight and labelled it the worst performance of his reign as they were held at home by Birmingham.
Sam Gallagher profited from a defensive lapse to equalise for the Blues after Ben Davies gave Preston a first-half lead.
North End are now four points off the play-off places after just one win in their last six matches, with Neil frustrated with their display.
“Individually and collectively that’s the poorest we’ve been since I’ve been at the club,” said a raging Neil. “We were flowery and soft. They did the fundamentals very well but we were lacking that.
“For what’s at at stake for us and what we want to achieve, we then churn out that performance that didn’t have the desire and aggression that it needs to have.
“On good days on good pitches in the sunshine when everyone is all pals and singing Kumbaya that’s easy, but when you need to grit it out you need to have a bit of gumption about you.
“There’s nothing worse for me when somebody comes and gets the better of us because they were stronger and bullied us. They are fundamentals and we didn’t do that.”
It was all Birmingham early on but against the run of play Preston took the lead after 17 minutes. Paul Gallagher’s free-kick was only headed across his own goal by Marc Roberts, where Davies tapped in his first Preston goal at the far post.
Birmingham, who haven’t won at Deepdale since 2001, had the chance to test Chris Maxwell in the Preston goal after 58 minutes with a freekick in a central position 20 yards out, but Jacques Maghoma dragged his effort wide.
The Blues’ second-half pressure told however after 63 minutes, with a helping hand from some calamitous Preston defending.
Paul Huntington lost the ball to Maghoma and Maxwell rushed from his goal to attempt to clear the danger, but was easily rounded and the ball was played to Sam Gallagher who slotted into the unguarded net.
Maghoma had Birmingham’s best chance for a winner in the 82nd minute as he was set in behind the Preston back four by Davis, but his tame effort was easily gathered by Maxwell.
Birmingham remain inside the relegation zone but have lost just one of their last four games.
“We’ve been playing well for a little while now, This isn’t a coincidence, this is starting to be a good, consistent team,” manager Steve Cotterill said. “We are going home disappointed because we felt that our performance merited the win.
“I really think it’s difficult to criticise the lads; the effort they have put in has been tremendous. There are no negatives to come other than we know we have deserved three points.
“I’ve watched a lot of Preston games. They are a good team with a good team spirit, but I haven’t seen Preston dominated as much as we dominated them.”