Penalty was a joke, fumes Farke

NORWICH manager Daniel Farke hit out at referee Geoff Eltringham after his side’s bid to reach the Premier League suffered a setback at Deepdale. Preston were already ahead through Ben Davies when the referee awarded them a 24th-minute penalty after fullback Darnell Fisher was upended by Emiliano Buendia — and Paul Gallagher fired in the spot kick. But Farke said: ‘I don’t have to speak about the second goal. It was ridiculous, a joke to concede a penalty. But it was the decision of referee and you have to accept it. ‘We had 22 shots on goal, they had four and scored three but the most important thing is the result.’ Norwich should have been in contention just after the halfhour when Ben Pearson tripped Onel Hernandez, only for Marco Stiepermann’s penalty to be brilliantly saved by Declan Rudd. Sean Maguire put Preston further ahead in the 68th minute before Teemu Pukki finally took one of Norwich’s many chances in injury time. Preston manager Alex Neil, the former Norwich boss, said: ‘They had a lot of chances but that’s part and parcel of the game. I’m not going to apologise.’