St Ledger Misses Pompey Clash

Preston`s Sean St Ledger maintains that he made minimal and non-deliberate contact with Colchester skipper Karl Duguid in Tuesday`s game against the U`s, despite conceding a penalty and being sent off.

The Republic of Ireland international is now automatically suspended for the side`s glamour FA Cup tie with Premier League Portsmouth on Saturday, where David Nuguet is expected to line up against the side he left last summer.

On the tackle which won a penalty in the 68th minute, St Ledger said: “Obviously I was the last man, but I haven’t tried to make a tackle.

“I have just stood my ground and he has run into me and then gone down like a ton of bricks,” he told the Lancashire Evening Post.

St Ledger was dismissed for a professional foul. “Whether or not that is a sending off, I’m not too sure. That’s for people to debate.

“Fair play to him, I think if it was our player then we would probably have done the same. But there were a lot of things that maybe should have happened before that. I will look at it on the DVD and see if it is dubious or not.

“But I feel like I shouldn’t have been sent off and it shouldn’t have been a penalty.”