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Published on Thursday 22 September 2011 04:11 Phil Brown admitted to being “bitterly disappointed” as Preston North End’s winning run came to an end at Southampton last night.
Six wins on the bounce had seen North End head to St Mary’s in confident mood, but they turned in a below-par attacking display and saw their involvement in the Carling Cup end at the third-round stage.
Adam Barton was on target for the visitors with his first goal of the season, levelling the scores five minutes into the second half after Jos Hooiveld had headed the Saints into a first-half lead.
But substitute Adam Lallana restored the home side’s advantage, and PNE were unable to find a way back into the contest.
Brown told the Evening Post: “After winning six games on the bounce, to have a result like this was bitterly disappointing.
“I thought we would go to Southampton and express ourselves, but in terms of attacking with the ball, we simply didn’t do that.
“Southampton are a very good side with some good players, and they caused us a lot of problems.
“We defended well enough but when we got possession of the ball, we were giving it straight back to them.
“It didn’t bother me that we had come to play the side at the top of the Championship –the form we had shown lately should have been enough to give anyone a game.
“I asked the lads to commit to defending properly which I thought they did, but what happened when it came to us attacking bamboozled me to a certain extent.
“It was nothing to do with making 10 changes – on Tuesday night Bolton made nine changes and Aston Villa three changes, and it was Bolton who came out on top.
“This was about application and attitude, and when we attacked, we kept giving the ball away.”
The 10 changes were all in the outfield positions, with goalkeeper Andreas Arestidou the only player to start last night’s contest and the win at Brentford.
Keammar Daley made his debut, the Jamaican winger playing the first half before giving way to the fit-again David Gray at the interval.
Steven Smith also came through 69 minutes on his return from a torn muscle, and that a major plus for Brown.
The PNE boss said: “Keammar was always going to play 45 minutes, as this was his first taste of competitive football over here.
“And David Gray getting 45 minutes and Steven Smith nearly 70 minutes was a big boost for us.
“I was pleased with the performance of Bailey Wright, who came in for his first game of the season.
“He applied himself well at centre-half and then changed his position to left-back when Steven Smith went off.
“Now we’ve got two days to prepare properly for the game on Saturday.
“We’ll train today after flying home – and I can’t thank the owner and chairman enough for that opportunity.
“Hopefully we can get a big crowd inside Deepdale on Saturday against Tranmere and get ourselves back to winning ways.”
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