'Appalling': Preston North End boss gives his view on the major controversy that unfolded in Sunderland draw

Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom has given his view on the 'absolute carnage' that unfolded shortly before Romaine Mundle scored his equaliser for Sunderland on Tuesday night, labelling the officiating 'appalling'.

Preston were leading 1-0 thanks to a goal from Emil Riis when a lengthy delay was sparked by Ryan Porteous going down with a head injury. Porteous was quickly back on his feet but was ordered to leave the field for further checks by the referee. At that point, Kaine Kesler-Hayden went down with an injury, and was substituted after a lengthy delay. Brad Potts then went down with a hamstring injury, at which point there was another delay.

As this was Preston's third set of substitutions, they would have not been able to make another if the game restarted without Potts being replaced. Amongst the chaos, Jayden Meghoma had not actually left the field and so Preston were about to restart the game with twelve players. Once that was solved the game restarted, with Mundle scoring a stunning goal before Porteous could rejoin the play.

Heckingbottom said: "They scored when we had ten men on, didn't they? That's the problem. We had players out of position so that we could get that man on. Pottsy's done his hamstring. The officials were poor as well. Tom on the side is telling us we can't make another sub, until the ball is back in play we can. That's another reason it took so long, they're telling me we can't make a sub. You can, until the ball is back in play. It was absolute carnage and I thought we were the coolest heads out there to be fair. When you've got officiating like that, appalling.

"We'd done the subs, we'd been thinking about Ched [Evans] but we’d done the subs and then Pottsy told us he had done his hamstring. That was my insistence [that we'd make another sub]. They'd have had us playing with ten men for the last twenty minutes. They weren't accepting the card or the board, so it almost went back in play."

Heckingbottom's verdict on Preston North End's performance in Sunderland draw

Heckingbottom said he was delighted with his team's display but rued their lack of clinical finishing.

"I was delighted with the performance," Heckingbottom said.

"I've said it a lot how consistent we've been with our performance but what we've not been is consistent in picking up the three points when we've been really good. That's the story of our season really. The level of consistency has been fantastic but we've not been clinical enough or shown enough quality and composure, good decision making to win games. But I can't criticise anything about the performance.

"Emil showed really good mentality and positivity to keep getting in there and keep going when it wasn't quite falling for him, it was a terrific goal. He's much better when he's instinctive. We were good throughout, there's not many teams come here and dominate the ball.

“You sometimes take a step away and look at the bigger picture. As long as the effort's there and we're trying, we're not going to criticise. We're not going to go out and spend millions and millions of pounds and match the teams. So the expectation of me, on the players, is just give the best.

“You come in here and do that to a good side; not many teams have done that. It’s nothing to do with endeavour, or playing for the team - all that's brilliant and taking tactics on the board really, really good. It’s just the finer details we're going to have to be really, really the best in the league at if we want to compete with teams who've got a little bit different qualities than us."

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