Preston 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Simon Grayson and Carlos Carvalhal reaction
Saturday 20 February 2016 20:42, UK
Preston manager Simon Grayson insisted he never doubted Joe Garner after the striker's second-half header secured a 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.
Garner scored 27 goals last season to fire Preston out of League One but has found goals harder to come by in the Sky Bet Championship.
Saturday's effort was only his fourth goal of a testing campaign, but after three league wins on the spin Preston have now climbed into the top 10.
They were helped by a second-half red card for Owls forward Fernando Forestieri but Grayson was delighted both with his striker's contribution and the team's overall showing.
"There's been talk about Joe Garner not scoring but he thoroughly deserved his goal. Hopefully he can kick on again," Grayson said.
"Joe is always in amongst it, he always puts his body on the line and that's why he's been in the team. Joe gives you so much to the team even when he's not scoring.
"We're delighted, we knew it would be a tough test for us. We challenged the players to get a win to kick off this week with three games. Every single one of them carried out the plan we've worked on all week.
"When we had to defend we defended and we limited a top team to not having a shot on target.
"All round the players did their jobs. Our defenders really want to defend. Some defenders want to be ball-players but our lads want to defend. They want to get hurt, want to tackle and make sure that they do everything required to keep a clean sheet.
"(We had) lots of good individual performances but the team is the most important thing."
This was Wednesday's first defeat in the Championship since December 28 and drops them to sixth in the table - still in the play-off spots but six points off the automatic promotion spots.
Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal was unhappy with the red card shown to Forestieri. He was booked first for diving, then given a second yellow card for handball.
"Forestieri received the ball in a good position and the defence blocked him and the referee gave him a yellow card, so the first yellow is not correct," Carvalhal said.
"The second yellow seems correct. Even though he doesn't touch the ball he's tried to put his hand on the ball and the referee therefore was correct.
"The first yellow card is unbelievable because it was a clear foul to us and he gives a yellow to Fernando. If he doesn't go down he will be in front of goal in the area with a very clear chance to score. For me he didn't dive in that moment because if he did it was not a good choice. He blocked him.
"I am happy with the attitude of our players, they tried to win the game, but we are unhappy with the score of course.
"The fans were amazing again, the game was balanced, we both created chances and in the second half we looked as though we would score but the red card changed the game. Even with 10 players we took risks and the players fought until the last second to try and win the game."
