‘I am sick of saying it’ - Ryan Lowe left livid at decision in Preston North End’s loss to Hull City

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe was massively disappointed to see his side not awarded a penalty in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Hull City.

The Lilywhites’ winless run extended to seven games, with Preston dropping to eighth in the Championship table after defeat to the Tigers. Jaden Philogene scored the only goal of the game as Liam Rosenior’s men took all three points in the clash.

With the game goalless, though, PNE captain Alan Browne went down inside the Hull box - under the challenge of Alfie Jones. A lofted ball forward on 47 minutes caused the hosts problems and North End’s number eight was left baffled at the referee’s decision. Having now seen major appeals turned down in the last three games, Lowe was not amused post-match.

“We are let down again by a decision which has cost us,” said Lowe. “I am sick of saying it, but it’s frustrating. I have got to be careful what I say. The first one, I haven’t seen but Browney is adamant he touched him. It’s the second one, because I could see right behind it. The defender has let it bounce, tried to make amends for it and thought he was snookered. That is when he brought him down. The referee is in a good position to see it and yeah, another moment that has cost us. That is hurting me more now, because of the decision on Wednesday night and now a decision again. I did go into the referee before the game, because the referee got changed last minute. I don’t know if you knew that.

“The official who was officiating it was taken in, so I just went in to say: ‘I know you weren’t ready for this and haven’t prepped for it - you have prepped to be fourth man - but I just want you to give us a genuine game’. And not to make it about him, make it about the football teams. Martin Atkinson said to me: ‘He’ll be fine’ - but I will leave that down to other people to see whether he was fine. I am not sitting here looking for any excuses. We could’ve done better on the goal, we know that. People say luck will come around and decisions will come for you; I’m not too sure they will. I am not too sure they get it right. And I know it’s hard and tough being a referee; I would never want to be a referee. I have refereed kid’s football matches when my lad has played and even that is tough. But, the fact of the matter is key decisions in key areas, you have to make the right ones.”

On the result, Lowe added: “We definitely deserved something. We cannot let their best player have that moment. We have to see it over the line before it gets to our penalty box but we didn’t deal with it as well as we should’ve done, having dealt with him for large parts of the game. It is hard to get back in it at that point, because any Championship team can see the game out and that’s what Hull did. We were well in large parts of the game - changed it around, got Ched (Evans) on and looked more promising. I couldn’t have asked for any more really, but the goal is disappointing.

“I thought a fair result would’ve been a draw, I genuinely did. I thought it was two footballing teams trying to lock on - tactical on either side of trying to change shape, move people around and counter each other. I thought it was a good game of football, but obviously they take the credit and we don’t. The lads gave us everything. We tried everything to get three points... it wasn’t to be. We lacked a bit of quality at the top end today and we need to make sure that counts. We have just got to make sure we learn from it quickly and get back to it.”

Lowe made one change to his team on the day, with Ryan Ledson coming in for Mads Frokjaer - who remained an unused substitute. That decision was a straightforward one in the Preston chief’s eyes.

“Ledo was always going to play because of how they play,” said Lowe. “They went with two eights and one four. Ledo obviously got in there with Whitey - and then Browney - but the rotation of them is quite good. And when you’ve got Ryan in there, who is solid as a rock along with (Whitey) and Browney, you know you can always rely on him to do that job because he’s good at it. They changed a little bit in the second half and went with more of a box in there, then we changed and had a bit of impetus. It was a tactical game for both managers, trying to get the best out of their teams.”