“Officials Apologised For First 2 Preston Goals” – McKenna Proclaimed

Town manager Kieran McKenna has disclosed that the Blues received an apology from last week’s officials for Preston’s first two goals in last Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Deepdale.

Skipper Sam Morsy appeared to be fouled by Will Keane prior to the former Town striker’s opening goal in the fifth minute, but referee Graham Scott failed to see anything wrong.

Then, three minutes later, there was a blatant offside in the build-up to the second, which George Edmundson inadvertently pushed past Vaclav Hladky, despite being missed by assistant referee James Mainwaring.

When asked about the apology, McKenna said, “Yes, I believe it was stated that both first goals should not have counted, and I believe that is clear after watching it back.”

“The first goal is a blatant foul, excluding the tremendous deflection on the shot from 28 yards, while the second goal is a clear offside.

“I remarked at the time that it’s a tough game in general, but when those two incidents occur within the first seven minutes, it’s always going to be challenging. There can be credit for the way we recovered from that scenario.”

While the two goals skewed the start to the Preston game, the Blues may have succumbed within the first 70 seconds, which isn’t the first time Town has begun a game slowly or let the opponent to get ahead this season.

“There’s two sides to it,” McKenna reflected. “You might argue that we started the game poorly, but it was because two goals should have been disallowed in the first seven minutes.

“It wasn’t like the players weren’t running or on top of their game, so there were moments.

“I believe we’ve had a number of games this year in which there have been random moments, refereeing decisions, amazing goals, or individual blunders, all of which may occur in a football match.

“But we don’t conceal the reality that, particularly away from home, there have been a few more games than we would like in which we have conceded the first goal.

“Especially in a few of away games, we haven’t been able to establish a foothold in the game as steadily as we would like in the early stages, and that’s something we’ve looked into and will continue to look into.

“We always evaluate the team and how we’re doing in order to discover areas where we can improve, but football can be a strange game at times.

“The players prepared extremely well for the game last week, and I have no concerns about their attitude or enthusiasm at the start of the game. They scored a deflected goal from 28 yards that should have been a free kick, which leads to a terrible start.

“So I think there’s been a few of those, but there’s also things that we’ve identified and we’ll look at to give us a better chance to get a good footing in the game.”

Town have won only one of their last eight league games, a streak identical to this time last year, which preceded the astonishing unbeaten 15-game drive to promotion (13 wins and two draws).

McKenna was asked if there were similarities between the sticky spell last year and the current scenario.

“I believe you will always have different seasons,” McKenna considered. “Maybe one club will this year, but throughout the course of a 46-game season, you will not have a phase in which you win every game.

“Last Saturday was the league’s first loss in six games, and the league’s first loss since 2024.

“You’ll have stages anyway, and we’ll definitely have phases in this division.

“So we don’t need any comfort, but last season we had periods that were probably around the same time of year, as well as some similarities in injuries and players absent during the winter.

“We are now integrating new acquisitions into the team, which takes time and will not be completed within one week.

“So we’re trying to achieve that while getting players back from injuries and keeping our group as fit as possible.

“Also, continuing to compete in a really tough division where every game is difficult and competing at times when things go against you, as they did last week with two decisions, as well as an element of last week playing on a difficult football pitch to play football on, so there are many things you can take.

“We understood going into the season that there would be times when we didn’t win as many games as usual.

“That’s why we’re pretty consistent in terms of sticking to the day-to-day work, doing the right things with the right attitude and culture in the building, which I’m seeing and enjoying on a daily basis, and looking forward to taking each game as it comes.” That’s what we did last year and will continue to do this year.