PNE’s David Buchanan admits the Lilywhites are slightly disappointed they didn’t put MK Dons to the sword after such a dominant first half performance at Deepdale.
Despite being 2-1 up at half time, North End eventually drew 2-2 with Karl Robinson’s side, thanks to a second half penalty for the visitors which Shaun Williams slotted past Declan Rudd coolly.
And when ‘Buchs’ was asked whether he and his teammates were frustrated that they couldn’t see out the game, the left back conceded that, while the team can take numerous positives from the match, they were slightly disheartened at the result.
“Definitely. We got a lot more crosses into the box, we got a lot more attempts on goal, we passed the ball through the final third,” he told PNE.Com in an exclusive interview following the match.
“It’s just a shame we couldn’t get that next goal, I think that would have finished them off, but you’ve got to give credit to them, they passed the ball round, they’ve got a great style of play and scored a great goal.
“I don’t think we’ll see a better goal this weekend than the first one they got and then it’s just unfortunate we conceded the penalty.
“But we’ve got to take the positives out of the game, it’s another win and another point on the board against a decent team and we’ll just go onto the next one.”
Rain poured throughout the match, prompting many players to slip up on the wet playing surface, but Buchanan believes Preston dealt with the difficult conditions well.
“The rain was coming down and you just had to stay on your guard and stay concentrated as a defender and I think we did that,” he said.
“I can’t remember Dec having too many saves to make, I thought when the balls came into the box we got ourselves into good positions and defending well for the majority of the game.”
The game marked a return to action for the previously injured Stuart Beavon, as well as Joe Garner’s very first goal for the Lilywhites, and Buchs was quick to praise both players for their impacts on the team.
“It’s always nice to see someone with Bev’s quality back in the side,” he said.
“He’s looking sharp in training, he works hard, he’s fit and he’s a goalscorer and that’s what we need.
“We’ve got great forwards, congrats to Joe Garner today getting a goal after such persistence in his play, shutting the ‘keeper.
“We’ve got good forwards at this football Club and there are people sat in the stands like Graham Cummins, Hume on the bench and Bev – we’ve got a good squad of forwards and we just hope they can get the right amount of goals this season.”