Preston boss comments on Leeds United hero Eddie Nketiah

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Arsenal loanee Eddie Nketiah scored his third Championship goal for Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United to secure a draw with Preston North End at Deepdale.

Alex Neil was understandably disappointed as Preston North End threw away a lead to draw late on with Leeds United on Tuesday but admitted to the club’s official website that Eddie Nketiah’s decisive goal was a ‘great header’.

The Arsenal loanee was the hero for Marcelo Bielsa’s Championship challengers at Deepdale. Nketiah came off the bench with a quarter of an hour remaining and, almost with his first touch, reacted brilliantly to loop an inch-perfect header into the Preston net following a Kalvin Phillips free-kick.

This was exactly the kind of predatory instinct Leeds were crying out for, especially with Patrick Bamford taking his barren run to an eighth game, with Nketiah having also scored crucial late goals against Barnsley and Brentford.

But a point is still an excellent result for a Preston side who took the lead through a Tom Barkhuizen finish following a lethal counter attack before being pegged back.

“I think my biggest disappointment [for Leeds’ goal] is that I’m not sure we need as many players in the wall for the free-kick,” Neil said after the game.

“What happens, because we surrender a lot of players over here [in the wall], when it does break out and it goes up to the back post, everybody is this side of the pitch [where the wall was].

“That’s probably the only thing I would look at, but it’s a great header, the lad gets up really early, really high and it’s one of them loopy ones where you’re just hoping it doesn’t drop in.

“I think if teams finish up above Leeds in this division, I think they’ll be in the Premier League.”

Nketiah made it clear after scoring a hat-trick for England’s U21s against Austria last week that he was less than happy with his relative lack of game time since joining Leeds on loan (YEP).

But with the 20-year-old once again making the difference while the much-maligned Bamford toiled, skewing one glorious chance out for a throw-in, it remains to be seen whether the famously stubborn Bielsa will finally hand Nketiah a first league start at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.