Preston boss Phil Brown blasted the Vicarage Road pitch after his side surrendered a two-goal lead at Watford.
PNE boss happy nonetheless; Mackay hails 'masterful' changes
Preston manager Phil Brown blasted the Vicarage Road pitch after his side surrendered a two-goal lead at Watford.
North End were comfortable at the break, leading 2-0 through goals from Sean St Ledger and Leon Clarke and a win would have taken them off the bottom of The Championship.
The hosts recovered, though, with two goals in ten minutes from substitute duo Andreas Weimann and Matthew Whichelow salvaging a 2-2 draw for The Hornets.
"The first half performance was very encouraging on a pitch that was terrible," snarled Brown, who has yet to win since taking over early last month.
"It was a great advert for the Championship. They threw the kitchen sink at us and their changes changed the course of the game.
"We got to 65 minutes 2-0 up but we shoot ourselves in the foot every week.
"We dropped two points and our immediate challenge is to get off the bottom and we had the chance to do that."
Preston are now nine points adrift of safety but, although Brown realises the mammoth task he faces to keep them up, he is refusing to rule out a miraculous revival.
"I'm waiting too long for my first win but I believe that when we do get it we are good enough to pick up two, three or four wins quickly.
"We have made improvements steadily since I came in and we now play the champions elect in QPR.
"We will be buoyed by the positives to take from here and we aim to put a spanner in the works for QPR on Saturday."
Watford reaction
Watford boss Malky Mackay hailed his "masterful" substitutions to claw out a result and believes his side's second-half fight-back warranted their point.
"The goal in the first minute allowed Preston to sit deep and catch us on the break and it gave us a mountain to climb," he said.
"The onus was on us to get after them at home but we had to be wary as I've played in games like that which have ended 5-0.
"At half-time I just asked for them to get one goal as I knew that would give us a huge boost.
"I felt the second half performance warranted a point in the end. You could say it was masterful substitutions and thankfully it worked out well."
Mackay hailed 19-year-old Whichelow for his consistent impact from the bench and has backed the winger to progress by adding a physical edge to his game.
"Matt Whichelow has come on and scored a few goals for us now and you can see the confidence coming into him," said Mackay.
"He's got talent, he just needs to adapt to the physical challenge of playing men's football."
