Preston North End youngster Jamie Proctor has expressed his disappointment after the Lilywhites were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup by Everton.
The Merseysiders progressed to the 6th round of the FA Youth Cup last night after a 3-0 victory at Deepdale but Proctor believes that the game could have turned out very differently.
Speaking to the Club website, he said:
“It was a game of two penalty boxes really, if we had put our chances away at the other end the game would have been different.”
“The first goal was a set-piece and someone lost their man and that was something we have worked on as well which is disappointing. The penalty, it might have been one, it might not have been one. The third goal just killed us really, it dropped to him on the edge of the box and I don’t think we deserved that at all.”
“I got through a couple of times but I just couldn’t get the efforts on target or trouble the keeper, but one where I was through and I put it over the keeper I thought it was rolling in but it just went past the post. It wasn’t our day I suppose.”
“We’ll look back and we will think that we have beaten two of the best teams in the competition and in England. We’ve given another of the best teams in the country a good go here tonight and the scoreline doesn’t reflect the game. We will look back and be very proud of what we have achieved.”
Proctor recently signed professional terms at North End and while he hopes to play in front of some packed houses in the future the locally born youngster was pleased to see 1500 fans brave a chilly Lancashire night to watch the Youth team. He added:
“We were told before the game to expect at least a thousand and I don’t think any of the lads really believed it, so to see how many there were tonight, they were fantastic, even at 3-0, they kept getting behind us, they kept spurring us on and I think that’s the main reason why we just wanted to keep going.”
“It’s also why most of us are disappointed, it’s the biggest crowd most of us will have played in front of and we seemed to have let them down.”
The remaining fifth round fixtures still to be played are:
Monday 8th February
- Liverpool v Watford
Thursday 11th February
- Hull City v Crystal Palace
Friday 12th February
- Aston Villa v Millwall
