Paul Heckingbottom defends starting two-goal Milutin Osmajic amid biting charge

Posted Thursday, October 03, 2024 by PA

Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom praised Milutin Osmajic after the forward notched a brace in the 3-0 win over Watford as North End await the outcome of his charge of biting an opponent.

Osmajic made his first Championship start of the season in the contest at Deepdale six days on from being charged by the Football Association over his alleged biting of Blackburn defender Owen Beck during the 0-0 draw with Rovers on September 22.

While Preston director Peter Ridsdale had said in a talkSPORT interview that the Montenegro international had accepted the charge, with no further statement on the matter having come from the FA, he remained available for selection.

He went on to produce finishes in the 53rd and 65th minutes, to which Ali McCann added a superb 75th-minute strike, and Heckingbottom said of Osmajic: “(I was) impressed with him.

“He scored goals for us in the cup (a hat-trick in a 5-0 Carabao Cup second-round win at Harrogate), played well again against Fulham (in the next round) and deserved his opportunity.

“I’m not going to punish him twice, me twice, the club twice, the fans twice. We’ll wait and see what the governing body does, and how we deal with that, and that process is ongoing.

“He deserved his chance. We don’t know the outcome, but he’s probably not going to be available at the weekend (when Preston go to Burnley).

“It would have been the same decision anyway, but with the quick turnaround and the probability he will be missing, it just means it makes sense to not put anyone else in the firing line, and luckily it was the right call tonight.”

He added: “I think we handle it well with him. There’s discussions we have internally, which I would never share with you, you can understand that. We deal with that our way, my way.

“And then I’m not going to punish, like I said, everyone twice. It’s up to the governing body to do that. We’ll have our own thing internal but apart from that the FA will decide.”

The win, only Preston’s second in the league this season, saw them move out of the relegation zone.

Watford were unable to make the most of some good chances, including Kwadwo Baah failing to score early on when through one v one as Freddie Woodman saved his shot.

But boss Tom Cleverley, whose side remained eighth, stressed the big chances in the game were not his focus.

“We have to compete much better when we come away from home,” he said.

“If you don’t win the battle, you have to absolutely dominate the ball, and we didn’t do either. Everyone has to react and luckily we have a game (on Saturday against Middlesbrough at home) and a chance to react.

“We were playing within ourselves first half. We were in the game, but we didn’t look like a team who were desperate to challenge at the business end of the table.

“We looked like a team that was happy to be a mid-table team, win a lot of games at home, do so so away from home. That’s the disappointment for me – that we’ve come here with a mid-table mindset, and we work far too hard to be that.”