North End midfielder Ryan Ledson admitted that despite the positives of coming back from two goals down and making his return to the action, it was ultimately a disappointing outcome as the Lilywhites tasted defeat at Bramall Lane as David McGoldrick’s goal three minutes from time settled the scores.
There was the feeling of deserving from the game from PNE’s No. 18 when he settled down for his post-match interview with iFollowPNE after the game.
“We deserved something out of that game, particularly for that last 35 minutes,” stated the Liverpudlian.
“I thought we were excellent and really took the game to them in that period. We rolled our sleeves up and had a go at them. Listen it was disappointing but there are positives there and we have to go again.”
The Lilywhites battled back from two goals down as first Callum Robinson, and then Daniel Johnson got PNE on level pegging after Billy Sharp and Chris Basham sent the hosts two in front.
However, despite North End’s determination and efforts to get something back into the game, David McGoldrick fired United back in front on 87 minutes which left a bitter taste to swallow for Lesson and all concerned.
He continued: “I thought for the second goal, we’ve worked it really well and DJ has managed to get us back in it but I think then it’s game management and shut up shop for the last ten minutes when you come to a place like this - you’ll more often than not take a point because it’s a tough place to come.
“You’d take a point away from this game and move on to the next one but unfortunately we’ve conceded with a few minutes to go and it’s very disappointing and the lads are very disappointed in there. But there’s still a load of games to go so we’ll take the positives out of it and move on.
“We moved the ball really well in the second half. We changed it a little bit at half-time and we had space in the middle of the park and we were playing it out wide. Callum was a danger and two full backs were bombing on and that worked for the two goals.”
Ledson came back into the fold this afternoon following a three match from his straight red card at Leeds United in the Cup, and he conceded it was nice to be back out there with minutes under his belt.
“It felt good to be a footballer, again” added Ledson.
“It’s not nice missing games, especially because it was my fault as it was my individual mistake which got me sent off but I thoroughly enjoyed it out there. I tried to give everything but it sadly wasn’t quite enough but we’ll go again next week."
Watch Ryan's interview in full on iFollowPNE via the video above.