Preston 3-0 Cardiff: Simon Grayson and Paul Trollope reaction
Wednesday 14 September 2016 11:11, UK
Simon Grayson thought Preston's performance was flawless as they recorded their first league victory at Deepdale in seven months with a 3-0 success over Cardiff.
A winless run on home soil which had dated back to February 23 was ended when Tom Clarke and Callum Robinson scored within six first-half minutes and Jordan Hugill curled in a late third.
North End came into this game having lost five of their opening six fixtures, yet Grayson had remained calm and was delighted to see their slump ended in such convincing fashion.
"I'm really pleased, you can't fault anything that we've done tonight," he said.
"It's an addition to how we played in the second half against Barnsley, we carried that forward. We've spoken about it a lot with the players and watched it again a couple of times and kept on telling them to believe that what they're doing is the right thing.
"Nobody's happy with the start we've had, there have been frustrations for everybody, but we've known what we've been trying to do.
"I said after the game on Saturday, if we play like we did a result is around the corner and the players have maintained the belief, they're all together.
"We've said there's only a certain number of people that can change the run that we're on and that's the ones within the dressing room."
On a night where heavy rain, thunder and lightning were all present in Lancashire, Bluebirds goalkeeper Ben Wilson dropped the ball at Clarke's feet to allow the Preston skipper to fire in his first goal in nearly two years.
Robinson finished off a solo run to add a second shortly after and there was no sign of a Cardiff fightback before Hugill killed the game off with a third two minutes before the end.
The Bluebirds' travelling woes therefore continued, with the South Wales club having now not won any of their previous 10 away games in all competitions, and boss Paul Trollope pulled no punches in his assessment.
"It was absolutely our worst performance of the season," he declared.
"Especially in the first period, we lacked a lot of things with and without the ball. As normal the team were fully prepared and ready for the challenge ahead and we didn't get anywhere near the level that we want and expect.
"We didn't have the basics in place in terms of defensive responsibility, defensive desire, so for those two things not to come together in the first period was very disappointing. Apologies to the travelling supporters because they've travelled a long way on a Tuesday night and they've seen a performance that was unacceptable."
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