Blackburn’s Owen Beck allegedly bitten on neck by Preston’s Milutin Osmajic

Posted Sunday, September 22, 2024 by PA

Blackburn’s Owen Beck was shaken up after allegedly being bitten on the back of his neck by Preston’s Milutin Osmajic in their bad-tempered goalless draw, Rovers boss John Eustace revealed.

Beck was sent off in the 89th minute for kicking out at Duane Holmes, but the bigger controversy came in the immediate aftermath of the incident as video footage appeared to show Osmajic biting the Blackburn left-back.

Commenting on the incident, Eustace said: “He (Beck) went to clear the ball and caught the lad, but he’s got a big bite mark on the back of his neck. It’s a shame the referee didn’t see that.

“He’s shown all the lads. He’s very disappointed to be sent off, but obviously he doesn’t want to have that on the back of his neck as well. He’s a little bit quiet, a little bit shook up.”

Osmajic’s manager, Paul Heckingbottom, added: “All I can say is that there’s no place for (biting),” he said. “Mistimed tackles, things like that are part and parcel of the game, you accept them, anything that is not has to be dealt with.”

Preston’s Sam Greenwood was also sent off after flooring Lewis Baker with a reckless two-footed lunge in the 42nd minute, but Eustace was sympathetic toward the Leeds loanee.

He said: “It looked a little bit high, but we have to remember it’s a local derby. Blood and thunder, bodies on the line, those are the kind of challenges you expect in a local derby.

Heckingbottom accepted the decision but demanded greater consistency over what constitutes a red card challenge.

“At the time, I thought he won the ball (and that it was a) yellow card,” he said. “He probably does, but the player’s leg gets trapped underneath.

“If they’re red (cards) that’s fine, but we just want to see that consistency. I’ve no problem with that.”

The North End manager felt his team did well to manage the game in different ways and even suggested the Greenwood sending-off may have made life harder for their opponents.

“We controlled the first half with the ball without having enough opportunities or getting behind them enough or getting enough clear-cut chances from the possession that we had,” he said.

“In the second half, we controlled the game in a different way. We controlled the game without the ball and, in that respect, it probably hurt Blackburn a little bit because they’ve been the best counter-attacking team in the league so far.”

Eustace admitted as much himself, revealing his annoyance at not carving out more chances.

“We didn’t create enough in the final third when they were down to 10 men,” he said. “That’s something we have to work on. We still had the best chance of the game.

“We limited them in the first half to no chances at all, apart from the header in the last minute, from which (Aynsley Pears) pulled a good save off. It’s a local derby. Form and quality kind of goes out of the window.”