Jack Ryan scored a superb goal to give the Lilywhites the lead in their FA Youth Cup tie with Norwich, but the frontman was nonplussed by the effort due to the final score.
The North End No.9 made it five goals in three FA Youth Cup matches at Deepdale in 2013 with his 12th minute strike that saw him take Nick Anderton’s long ball on the chest, before lifting an exquisite chip over the Canaries keeper.
But when he spoke to the official website after the game, he was more bothered about the result that his own efforts: “Any goal is a goal in my eyes, but we lost the game, so it doesn’t really matter,” he told PNE.Com.
“I’ve gained a lot of confidence in the last few games, scoring goals and the lads have seen that, so they kept giving me the ball. I thought my hold up play was good, I managed to get a goal and had another one disallowed.
“Before extra-time I thought we were first class. We didn’t give up, we gave 100 per cent, but in extra-time we turned off, got a bit sloppy and that’s when they started playing around us, started scoring goals and the scoreline didn’t reflect our performance.”
The work-rate of the North End side was again something that stood out before the extra-time effort from the visitors and Jack said that this was something they were determined would not let them down.
“I thought we worked well together and I thought everyone was outstanding,” he continued.
“In the dressing room before the game we talked about working as a unit and not giving up and everyone stood by that.”
“It was a quick goal [to make it 2-1 after 92 minutes] and after it everyone’s heads went down. We tried to react, but sadly it didn’t work out for us on the night.
“We have all worked hard in training and tried to put that into the games and it nearly came off for us, but sadly it didn’t in the end. It was a great experience for both the first and second years and hopefully we can carry on with some good performances in the league after Christmas.
“We have to work hard over that period and make sure we don’t lose any of our fitness, get stuck in when we come back and try get some wins under our belts and see what that brings for us.”