Stuart Beavon was named man of the match as Preston North End fell to a 3-1 defeat against Boro in the Capital One Cup...
“At least being knocked out of the cup tonight allows us to focus more on the league, but it is hard to take that as a positive as progressing in the cup would have been nice.
Next up for North End is Yeovil Town at Deepdale on Saturday, with Beavon now fully focused on the league after Preston’s run in the Capital One Cup was brought to an end for another season.
“I am pleased to have been named man of the match and to get the assist, but I would be happier coming off the pitch now with a couple of goals to my name and a place in the next round to show for it, to maybe warrant it more.”
“I had a few chances and who knows, on another night they could go in and we end up winning the tie but tonight it was not to be.
“It was nice to get the assist for Jack’s goal and to be named man of the match, but looking back at the game today I really think I should probably have had a couple of goals myself.
Whilst Beavon was named as the man of the match after his energetic display, and provided the assist for King’s goal, the striker was also critical of his own performance, believing that on another day he could have been walking off with the match ball.
“They were good performances and today, in parts, we put in a good performance. We just need to make sure we perform like that for 90 minutes rather than bits, because, as we have seen today, when you do not put the performance in for the full 90 minutes you do not get the result.”
“Obviously for the first two games I was not here, but I have listened to the results and I have seen them and I have spoken to Jack [King].
“We have beaten two Championship sides and tonight against a third, we were the better side for large periods of the game, we just struggled a bit in front of goal.
“We can take some encouraging signs from today’s game and our performances in this competition this season.
“We did not have much luck in front of goal tonight but as long as we are making the chances then it is not as much of a problem as if we were not creating any chances,” said Beavon. “When you are not making the chances, that is when you have a problem and when you are in trouble.
Despite North End’s poor showing in front of goal, Beavon believes PNE do not have a problem upfront and that there are still positives they can take from tonight’s game, with the Lilywhites’ learning a lot from their performances in the cup this season..
“Credit to Middlesbrough, they took their chances and have ended the day with three goals. They were lucky goals and could have been avoided but in this game you make your own luck. It does not matter how it finds its way into the back of the net as long as it finds its way into the back of the net. We would have taken them. It was a little bit lucky but at the end of the day a goal is a goal and the 3-1 result in their favour stands.”
“Once we got back into it we fought back. We got the goal before half-time, came out in the second half, started brightly and were the better side, but then they got the third goal and it finished us off. We let ourselves down with the performance.
“The weather today also has not helped, but at the end of the day it is the same for both teams. They have had to deal with it as much as we did.
“It was definitely a disappointing performance tonight,” said Beavon. “We did not start very well. It took us a while to get into the game.
After finding themselves 2-0 down early on in the game, PNE did well to fight their way back into the match, but Beavon was critical of the side’s performance, and in particular their poor start to the game.