Neil refuses to blame Rudd despite mistake against Birmingham

Posted Sunday, December 02, 2018 by PA

Preston manager Alex Neil insisted that he would not make goalkeeper Declan Rudd a scapegoat after his match-changing mistake in their 3-0 Sky Bet Championship defeat against Birmingham at St Andrew’s.

Birmingham were gifted their first goal in the 46th minute by Rudd when he somehow failed to collect a ball from City’s Maikel Kieftenbeld and let it roll through his legs.

Birmingham doubled their advantage through Jacques Maghoma in the 61st minute with Che Adams setting the seal on the win in the 77th minute.

Neil, whose side had been unbeaten in their previous nine games, said: “We are certainly not going to make a scapegoat of him.

“He made a mistake. It cost us the first goal but we could then go and repair it which we didn’t do. There is a lot more that went wrong than that mistake.

“I don’t really need to say much to Declan. To be honest with you I didn’t even see it. The ball went over the defender and I turned to follow the ball up the pitch.

“As a professional player you know you made a mistake and you need to let it go. There is nothing you can do about it now.

“Against Birmingham the first goal is so important as if they get it we need to be more expansive and you leave yourself vulnerable.

“It was a really bad day at the office for us and I think the most disappointing thing was that towards the end it didn’t look like we had that belief to get ourselves back into the game.

“Every game we have played, even when we have been beaten, we have normally had that little bit of rallying in us.”

Birmingham’s manager Garry Monk was delighted with the way that his side performed as they made it back to back wins following their derby defeat against Aston Villa.

Birmingham are now unbeaten in their last 15 league games at St Andrew’s and only four points off the play-offs but Monk insists he is not thinking about promotion.

He said: “It is totally not in our thinking at all. We deal with reality. Everyone understands what we have been working under this season.

“This club have been facing relegation on the last day in three out of the last five years. We want to show progression. That is all we are focussed on.

“We are nowhere near those (promotion chasing) teams as a squad. It is not reality to think that we can compete with them.

“Considering where we have come from, we don’t have a magic wand. We are fighting and trying to be better than what we have been before.

“Everyone is on the same page. If it takes us somewhere great but for me it is not reality for this club and this squad at the moment.”

Monk was confident that his side would beaten Preston even without Rudd giving them a helping hand.

He added: “If I am honest I don’t think that anything was going to stop us in the second half. We didn’t need to be given anything. We uppped everything.

“It has been the perfect response to losing the derby and you cannot ask for anything more than what we have done.

“We are proud of our record at St Andrew’s and we will fight hard to maintain that.”