What Paul Heckingbottom said after Preston's loss to Birmingham City has got fans reacting | OneFootball

Birmingham City fans have been reacting on social media to controversial comments made by Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom.

Birmingham City returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Preston North End at Deepdale in the Championship on Tuesday night.

After storming to the League One title last season, Birmingham owner Tom Wagner claimed that the club were targeting back-to-back promotions this campaign, but it has not been the start the Midlands outfit would have been hoping for.

Prior to Tuesday's trip to Preston, the Blues had failed to win any of their four previous games, and pressure was building on manager Chris Davies after a 3-2 defeat to Hull City at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park on Saturday, which was the club's first home league loss since April 2024.

However, Birmingham picked up a much-needed victory on Tuesday night, with Phil Neumann's 33rd-minute goal proving enough to earn all three points, but the Lilywhites were left frustrated as they believed the ball came off the defender's arm.

North End's anger increased further as they had multiple penalty claims turned down, and despite having 61.7% possession in the game and 17 shots in comparison to nine for the Blues, with six of those on target, they could not find an equaliser and fell to their second consecutive defeat.

The victory eases some of the scrutiny on Davies after a difficult period, but despite reports emerging on Wednesday morning claiming that he has just two weeks to save his job at Birmingham ahead of the November international break, it seems he still retains the full backing of supporters, with the away end singing his name after the full-time whistle at Deepdale.

Heckingbottom was full of praise for his side's performance in their defeat to Birmingham, but he was much less pleased with the officials for allowing Neumann's goal to stand, while he also criticised the decision to give the free-kick that led to Preston going behind.

"First and foremost, I’m really proud of the performance and the team. We dominated the game, continually pushing to try and score," Heckingbottom told the club's official website.

"It’s another game where our goalkeeper's not had a save to make and we've come away with nothing. It’s really frustrating, but I’m really proud of the players.

"I wasn't going to say anything about the referee until I've been in there. When I look at things back, [the build-up for] their goal a free-kick is given for Odel (Offiah) brushing Keshi Anderson in the face. Odel’s come away with the ball with a great tackle. He’s brushed him in the face, he goes down holding his face, they get a free-kick. Their lad scores with his arm."

That was not the only decision that angered Heckingbottom, who also took aim at the officials for denying North End what he believed were three clear penalties for fouls on Milutin Osmajic, Ben Whiteman and Lewis Dobbin, and he claimed that his players are "getting punished for being a really good team".

As you would expect, Heckingbottom did not get much sympathy from Birmingham supporters after his refereeing complaints, and in response to a clip of his post-match interview posted on Preston's official X account, many Blues fans took exception to his claim that the Lilywhites dominated the game.

As well as questioning those comments from Heckingbottom, some Birmingham supporters were also critical of North End's style of play, insisting that, far from creating a host of clear-cut chances, the Lancashire outfit were instead guilty of playing too many aimless long balls.

While there was intense debate between both sets of supporters on social media after the game, it appears even some Preston supporters agreed with the Blues faithful, with one admitting that there was little to be positive about in the performance.