LATE MAK ATTACK STUNS SEAGULLS
BRIGHTON manager Chris Hughton was left wondering what could have been after he witnessed his side drop two points.
Second-half goals from Sam Baldock and Glenn Murray looked set to give Brighton victory after they cancelled out Jordan Hugill’s opener.
But Simon Makienok snatched a dramatic equaliser for Preston despite the visitors being down to ten men at the time due to injury.
Hughton said: “It’s incredibly disappointing. We didn’t start the game too well but I still felt we were the better team but certainly not to the levels that we can be at home.
“In the second-half we were very good and got ourselves in front with a really well-worked goal and then Glenn scored what I thought would be the winner.
“The first goal was a poor goal to concede. We were up against a team that play a system and work very hard and you can’t give any team in this division an opportunity.
“To be 2-1 up and fairly comfortable makes the result even harder to take.”
The away side took the lead in the tenth minute through Hugill when a lack of communication between Brighton goalkeeper David Stockdale and defender Shane Duffy allowed the Preston striker to latch on to the loose back pass and slot the ball into an empty net.
The Seagulls should have equalised from a corner three minutes later when Lewis Dunk headed just wide and Preston had a chance to double their lead when no one was able to get on the end of Callum Robinson’s delivery.
Another chance went begging for the home side on the stroke of halftime as Murray lashed his shot into the side-netting.
But the Seagulls equalised in the 54th minute when Bruno surged down the right wing from defence before his cross found Baldock in the area and he calmly stroked the ball into the bottom corner.
Brighton took the lead in the 65th minute after Murray produced an excellent turn in the area leaving Alex Baptiste on the floor before firing it underneath a diving Chris Maxwell.
Preston went down to ten men in the 87th minute as midfielder John Welsh limped off the pitch after going in for a challenge. But they didn’t falter and snatched a point in the second minute of injury time when two of their substitutes combined to earn their side a share of the spoils.
Paul Gallagher’s long ball found the leaping Makienok who towered over his marker and managed to head it past Stockdale.
And Preston manager Simon Grayson was left in a buoyant mood after a last-minute comeback saw his side earn a point at the Amex.
He said: “You come here against a real top team with really good individuals and you have to work extremely hard and do whatever it takes to try and get a result.
“I thought in the first half we did OK. We were quite comfortable and limited them to a few opportunities.
“We knew they would have spells during the game because of the players they have but we showed immense character to keep driving on especially when we went down to ten men.
“We didn’t quite do the basics right but you keep going and you hope to get a break and that’s what we got with a good ball from Gallagher and a good header from Makienok.”