Preston 1-1 MK Dons: Reaction from Karl Robinson and Simon Grayson
Saturday 16 April 2016 22:07, UK
MK Dons boss Karl Robinson experienced a range of emotions after striker Alex Revell proved an unlikely hero by saving a penalty to earn his side a 1-1 draw against Preston.
Revell donned the gloves with nine minutes remaining at Deepdale on Saturday, after goalkeeper Cody Cropper had been red-carded and MK Dons had used all of their substitutes, and he saved the resulting penalty from Joe Garner.
Earlier, Jermaine Beckford had given Preston a sixth-minute lead but Nicky Maynard levelled for the visitors on 54 minutes before Cropper saw red late in the game.
"I don't know what I am today - sad, upset, frustrated, proud," Robinson said. I think we deserved all three points. We should have got a goal first 15 minutes.
"I had Alex Revell with blood coming from his nose, Jonny Williams with blood pouring and that's the commitment I'm looking for.
"I think we have to appeal the red card because what do you lose? We still believe that we can turn this around and it would be phenomenal. I'm a believer.
"Whilst you have belief, you still have hope, but you don't have any hope without belief and we need to keep believing in some way. And if we don't achieve it, then we put some pride back in the shirt.
"These kids are honest kids and they deserve some luck. I don't know where I get it from but I believe in them as people. We just got to keep going. We go again, off to Hillsborough and our backs are certainly against the wall."
Beckford, who has missed most of the campaign through injury, superbly lifted the ball over the onrushing Cropper on six minutes to give Preston the lead.
The most dramatic moments of the game came on 81 minutes when Doyle was brought down by Cropper who was sent off and, with MK Dons having used all their subs, striker Revell took the gloves.
Garner stepped up for the penalty, which was saved by Revell to keep the scores level and Preston manager Simon Grayson was not happy.
"It's probably the angriest I've been after a game for a long time," Grayson said. "I'm not accepting that second-half performance from certain individuals. I do not want this season to peter out.
"The penalty miss probably summed up the second-half performance. I had a feeling that Joe was going to go and miss it.
"Some of our players have to look at themselves in the mirror. They've had a lot of praise this season and rightly so.
"There's few occasions where I've had to have a go at the players. But they have to look at themselves to see what they can do just to be in the team. They are still playing for places next year."
FL72 Live
