Preston North End's Lewis Dobbin celebrates scoring the opening goalplaceholder image
Preston North End's Lewis Dobbin celebrates scoring the opening goal | CameraSport - Rich Linley
The Aston Villa loan man scored his seventh league goal of the season on Saturday
Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom wasn’t impressed with Lewis Dobbin’s reaction to being substituted on Saturday.
However, the Aston Villa loan man’s performance did please the PNE chief - with the 23-year-old breaking the deadlock at Deepdale and causing Watford’s defence problems over the course of the eventual 2-2 draw.
When Dobbin was taken off for defender Andrew Hughes though, 11 minutes from time, the attacker made his feelings known in the dugout - which sparked a reaction from the Preston manager.
“Of course I mind it,” said Heckingbottom post-match. “It’s not Maradona I'm bringing off, is it? No-one's any better than anyone else. There's an easy way to sort that, you just don't start them and then they don't moan when they come off, do they? No, he's fine. Listen, he's frustrated because he was playing well, of course he was.
“But he was also part of the reason why they're counting on us all the time, because we'd gone for it, we'd put attacking players on and left the spaces. Sometimes when you're a forward you don't appreciate how hard the lads at the back are working and what they have to do. So, it was important that we made that change and it certainly helped us.”
Dobbin has started most of PNE’s games this season but finished few, with North End managing his workload and wanting him to go all out while on the pitch. It is the first time he has reacted in such a way and Heckingbottom knows he will learn from it.
As for his actual display on the afternoon, the Preston chief was happy. North End’s damaged home pitch does not suit Dobbin and other technical players in the team, but his impact over the last 180 minutes has been encouraging.
“Yeah, I thought he was good last game though as well,” said Heckingbottom. “The balls we got into him and the liveliness of it, I thought he handled it well. Today, because we were better as a team, we could get him in better positions and his goal, creating the chances for him is important.
“But him and Jebbo, I felt their appetite to press and energy to recover was really, really good from minute one. And do you know what? He'd have probably come off earlier if the game hadn't swung like that in that moment. We left him on for his moments.
“He would’ve come off earlier and we would’ve brought that more energy on: Smudge, Milly, Callum in that area of the pitch. Like I said, I was pleased with him and Jebbo today in terms of their energy against the ball.”
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