'Abusing officials is not the answer' - Heckingbottom

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom said the outcome of their defeat against Birmingham City was "decided by the referee" but abuse of the officials is not the answer.

After the 1-0 loss on Tuesday, Heckingbottom said if VAR had been implemented his side would have won.

"Everyone can see that the outcome of that game was decided by the referee and no one wants that, the referees don't want that. It's something we all want to avoid in the game, referees included.

"I'd rather not mention stuff like that but sometimes I feel it's right but I'd always rather speak to Kevin Friend for example about it. It's difficult because you can never say what you really want to say but you still want to be constructive with what you're saying and still try and get your point across about how important it is.

"We're all on the same page in terms of that we don't want to see it [bad decisions] and we need it to be better, everyone's of the same opinion.

"I don't think managers coming out abusing officials is necessarily the best thing as much as you do want to because there is a different level of accountability there.

"They'll feel a pressure off it but really there doesn't seem to be enough accountability there, they'll get a game the next time, so, I don't think managers coming out and abusing the officials is the answer."