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Paul Heckingbottom claims referee had a howler over major calls as Preston lose to Blackburn

Paul Heckingbottom claims the referee had a howler over major calls as Preston lose 2-1 to Blackburn on Friday night.

Goals from Mahktar Gueye and Todd Cantwell helped John Eustace’s side to a Lancashire derby victory. But, while the Preston boss admitted his side were off the pace offensively, he felt his side were hard done by following some major refereeing calls.

Preston went behind on the 39th minute when Makhtar Gueye headed home at the back post. Blackburn went 2-0 up when substitute Todd Cantwell scored a penalty in the 74th minute.

Brad Potts got one back for the Lilywhites in the 93rd minute, then had a huge penalty appeal waved away.

Chris Sutton said: “Agreed with everything John said in the interview bar this. I think if you, award the Blackburn one, which I thought was a penalty, then then you have to award this. Gueye doesn’t get any of the ball, and, and Potts wins the knockdown. I mean, it hits him on the arm as well. I mean, it could have been 2 penalties, really.

“But, it you know, it’s the same as the Blackburn award there. Gueye doesn’t get the ball. Potts does. And I think if that’s outside the box, you know, the referee would award a foul and a free kick, so it should have been a penalty to press him.”

Ryan Lowe said: “I agree with Chris. Yeah. I just watched here now the referee, look, takes his eyes off. And then all of a sudden, I think Ched Evans is in his eye line. Or someone’s in his eye line just there now.

“He doesn’t see the arm go up in my opinion because as I said, Chris, it’s either a penalty. And Brad Potts comes off with a blooded mouth, so you can see the effects it’s had. And he just looked there now. I think it’s the 25 in his way.

“So the ref doesn’t really see it. He just thinks Brad Potts has gone down. But when he goes over and sees the world, he should think, you know what? I need to liaise with me for the official on my linesman, who’s in a better position. And I 100% agree. If it give him penalty on Jack Whatmough one end, you’ve definitely gotta give a penalty on Brad Potts the other end.”

“We were too easy to play against in the first half in terms of we didn’t cause them enough problems,” Heckingbottom said after the game, per Lancashire Evening Post.

“We played in front of them too much; attacking players not positive enough and then, yeah, the message half time was that if we weren’t going to be positive enough in the second half, we’d be positive from the bench.

“We were, but we put ourselves in a horrible position being 2-0 down. Listen, we always focus on what we do and how we can be better, what we get right, what we get wrong. But it’s just frustrating the way the game’s ended. “If you look at how many times Blackburn turned us when they had good possession of the ball… we only played three passes in behind them in the first half. When I am critical of our team, it’s when we display not enough physicality for me.

“There was energy there. We ran, we played, but we played in front of them. We weren’t positive enough. If you look back now and think what caused them problems when we played four passes, when we competed for the first ball, we dropped on the second and we bludgeoned our way in. Because Blackburn are a team who defend deep, try and deny the space, when they go 1-0 up they can play on the counter as well. That tactic becomes even more effective for them.

“If we’d have got a comeback after being 2-0 down and away in a derby, it would have been a really good point and a really good sign of the spirit and the togetherness of the group. We had control of the game (for a period in the first half) but I want chances from that. I want to be more aggressive, I want more opportunities. Against a team like Blackburn, who do defend well and are happy to defend deep and give you that space, they’ll just play on the counter. We needed more from our attacking players in terms of more deliveries into the box, more bodies in the box to make them defend.”

On Blackburn having a awarded penalty and seeing his side have one waved away: “Listen, Josh and Jeremy know they’ve got it wrong. They couldn’t wait to get off the pitch. Even all the time Pottsy was down getting treated, they didn’t even have any of that on. It’s one of them, they’ve had a howler and it’s just… I can’t tell you how frustrating it is. It’s our jobs and we focus on what we do; I can’t tell you how frustrating it is.

“Then when you’re working with the lads all the time and the subs made the impact they did, and they’ve not got the reward for that. But then add to that the 6,500 fans who are paying to be here. They expect better, yeah, we all expect better. I’ve never seen a penalty given for clash of heads. I see them all the time for elbows in faces. Simple. But again, we’re not blaming the ref. We’ve got all our throw-ins wrong down the right.

“Jack and Pottsy, they know it inside out. Too easy; twice down the line. They get a corner from it and they should never. So look at us then after that, yeah, obviously, someone else has become the star of the show haven’t they? There’s nothing else to say about it. I could talk about us and what we did, what we got wrong and then what we did well but ultimately, everyone can see our players haven’t got what they deserved. Even though we were second best in the first half, our players haven’t got what they deserved.”

It is said that after the final whistle, Preston players made their way over to the referee in protest.

18 seconds were played, despite Potts being down for more than two minutes and being denied a penalty.

On a red card shown: “I think one of the staff was, yeah, I think so. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but I think one of our staff was.”

Twitter users reacted as Paul Heckingbottom claims the referee had a howler over major calls as Preston lose to Blackburn…

@martinbell82: Listen to this clowns interview after the game at Deepdale!! He didn’t want to talk about his player assaulting someone on the pitch directly in front of the Lino, he didn’t see it apparently! He spotted all incidents tonight funnily enough. I wonder why!!

@djhelliwell69: It wasn’t an elbow. His arm was straight. And Hyam got caught after the ball had been played

@Ryhoy13:
Honest interview, fair play.
But can’t blame the poor performance of the ref for getting beat.
PNE didn’t show up for 85mins

@simonbreakell: It was a late challenge. Hyam won the ball and the defender was late in trying to head the ball. If the ball had been on the floor and the defender mistimed the tackle, it’s a nailed on penalty. Just because the defender was late trying to head the ball makes no difference.

@HuggerV2: Lad should be more concerned about being terrible for 80mins

@TomHarrisonLaw: Let’s have it right
. We were pretty dreadful
. But it’s a tale of two penalties and more shambolic refereeing. One given. One not. No doubt we will get another apology. It’s actually a red card for their player for the elbow on Potts there. #PNEFC

@ChrisBlaylockDJ: I mean let’s be honest we were poor for 75 mins but the ref an absolute disgrace. Absolutely bottled it

@PNEPlug : Referee should be sacked

@mozoke: As a cov fan you were robbed #pusb

@smith_ingham: You were robbed by the referee there. Gives Blackburn a penalty for a simple clash of heads when nobody even appealed then fails to give one at the other end for a clear elbow/forearm to the face. Shocking refereeing

@tmcgpnefc: What a joke from the ref, he’s looking at potts with a nose bleed and doesn’t want to give the pen after whatmough down the other end challenges for the ball

@MartinRoons: Some bad decisions have gone against us this season, same as last. But we weren’t really at the races tonight

@BlackburnEnder: Amazing stuff from Heckingbottom, spots an ‘alleged elbow’ , but couldn’t see Beck being bit at Deepdale. Justice served last night.

@iampav: Honest assessment. We had too little of the first half and didn’t capitalise. But it was still fairly even. It took the second goal to spark a reaction. Poor reffing, but we shouldn’t be relying on those decisions so late in a game. We didn’t show enough.

@Saintoldsamjane: If they are giving them a pen for that then why did we not get one sick of refs in this league

@cosmxthy: Unlucky boys, 2-1 loss in your cup final. Enjoy being mediocre forever

@dom_33: Unfortunately we didn’t start playing until we went 2-0 down but robbed at the end sadly!

@TopLeaf9: As much as we really want to blame the ref (which we can) but the players need to be doing better, especially target practice, our first and only shot on target was the 93rd min đŸ˜±

@beingjj_: Hope the ref gets home and his wife’s in bed with the neighbour

@CoochyMaloochy: Preston fans cryin about the ref like they didn’t have a lad bite one of ours and not get sent off at deepdale 😂 karma lads

@alexcmfc: Yeah that is a robbery of the highest order, my god

@PxisleyT: One of the worst refereeing performances I’ve seen in a while, cold

@Itzhazza12: ref was honking

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