Paul Heckingbottom criticises Preston’s approach despite comeback victory

Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom said his side cannot just expect to “roll teams over” as they had to come from behind twice to beat lowly Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in an enthralling game at Hillsborough.

Charlie McNeill’s first-half goals were cancelled out by Ben Whiteman and Lewis Dobbin, with the Owls striker missing a penalty moments before Mads Frokjaer-Jensen’s winner.

The victory moved Preston up to fifth but Heckingbottom found fault with his side’s approach.

Heckingbottom said: “I said last season I wanted us to improve on winning games when we’re not at our best and we did that today.

“The game was a really good spectacle for the neutral, it was end to end but it’s not one I’m going to enjoy watching back for a lot of reasons.

“In the first half we were really poor. Their players kept running off us and we gave the ball away so cheaply.

“It’s going to kill us if we think we can just show up and roll teams over, we don’t have the resources to do that.

“We had very little control of the game without the ball and it’s a reminder of how spot on you’ve got to get things when you’re defending in this league.

“We started the second half well and scored from a set piece which was really important to giving us a foothold in the game.

“Wednesday have been suffering because their squad is small but they’ve got talented players. They play like they’ve got nothing to lose and we only won because in the second half we played like we have nothing to lose.

“Daniel (Iversen) made some really big saves in the first half which were just as important as the penalty. We’ve needed to get those little details right to win today.

“Luckily our drive and determination to win has got us over the line today. We made several mistakes but we continued to push and it’s got us the three points.”

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen said the first half was the best his bottom-of-the-table team have played this season.

Pedersen said: “Today I am a mixture of very proud and very disappointed. So proud of my team but so disappointed we haven’t won the game.

“After the derby last week, we were just disappointed because there was nothing to be happy with, so to deliver a performance like this in our next home game is excellent.

“I knew my players were tired when we started the game so today I told my players they had to be mentally strong and they were.

“I think the first half was our best half of the season defensively and offensively. We made so many chances and probably should have scored more in the first half.

“In the second half we played well but we were not so dominant. We missed a penalty and they scored moments later which really hurt us.

“Yes, we lost, but we have played so well. If we just sat back and accepted defeat I would be worried but we have been so good.

“I have nothing but the biggest respect for the boys. Our performance today gives me belief we can compete in many more games this season.”