Ideal birthday gift for Grayson

Simon Grayson believes Preston require a more clinical edge despite seeing them beat Notts County 1-0 in the JPT on Tuesday.

Defender Paul Huntington netted the only goal of a dour contest at Meadow Lane when he nodded in Kyel Reid's 20th-minute corner, which booked a Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Area final date with Walsall. The Magpies had chances to equalise as a Haydn Hollis header clipped the bar and Stephen McLaughlin's lob dropped inches wide but the visitors held on. After Preston also spurned a number of chances to put the game beyond doubt, Grayson acknowledged that relief was the overriding emotion come the final whistle. "We knew it was going to be competitive," said Grayson, who was celebrating his 45th birthday. "We did well - we passed it at the right times and it was hard in terms of the conditions. "The main objective at the start of the game was to go through which we have done. There's a little bit of debate about the goal and whether it was an own goal but it really does not matter who scores. "We had the opportunities to kill the game off. We didn't have that final cutting edge that we needed to finish the game off. "We rode our luck with one chance for Notts County when [McLaughlin] went through and I was just waiting for it to hit the back of the net. "When we broke forward we could have been a little bit more positive and incisive or a little bit more ruthless. "We knew we would get in good areas, we just need to make sure when we get chances we take them." For Notts County, it was a second defeat in a row following Saturday's 3-0 loss to Swindon and manager Shaun Derry bemoaned a lack of composure in front of goal in a game that was there for the taking. He said: "I'm disappointed. It was a game where chances were few and far between. You look at Preston in the league and they haven't conceded many this season. "I said to the guys before the game if and when we do get chances we had to be ruthless but we weren't. "We had a great chance when we hit the bar and then Stephen McLaughlin races through and his shot just goes wide. "I said to the players after the game that it was an opportunity that they have let slip by. I am disappointed to go out of course I am but the performance was actually okay. "We have to work on our cutting edge but to get it can be quite expensive. At the end of the day, people know what type of team we are. We thrive on our honesty and toil."