Abbott takes positives from defeat

Carlisle manager Greg Abbott claimed his side "battered" Preston after bowing out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on penalties.

Chris Beardsley's deflected effort had given Preston a third-minute lead but the match finished 1-1 thanks to a second-half equaliser from Jon-Paul McGovern, while Carlisle had Liam Noble sent off for a nasty tackle on Nicky Wroe. David Buchanan then fired home the decisive spot-kick for Preston after the home side had missed three times in succession. "On the positive side we created some great chances and were better than the opposition. We should have won in normal time and not lost on penalties," said Abbott. "We deserved to win. We battered them in the second half and if we had taken half our chances we would have won four or 5-1. They never looked like scoring after their freak goal."