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Huddersfield Town defender Radinio Balker acknowledges that his side’s management of leads “has to be better” after they started their campaign by conceding another late equaliser against Preston North End. The Terriers exited the Carabao Cup at the first-round stage at Goodison Park on Saturday, despite getting in front against ten men. Lewis Gibson was sent off in the 21st minute before Balker put the Terriers ahead seven minutes before half-time. Despite this, Town conceded an equaliser in the third minute of stoppage time, before losing 4-3 on spotkicks. Town made a habit of conceding late goals last term, including doing so three times in the space of one week in April, with this season’s campaign getting underway in the same vein. Reflecting on his side’s shootout exit, Balker told HTTV: “I don’t feel good. I think it wasn’t our best performance. “I think we were competing with them, but the first minutes, I think they were a little bit better, we were on the back foot. Then you get a little bit into the game, they get a red card, and then you think ‘okay, now we can actually retain the ball, play the ball in their half, and dominate the game’. “I think first half, we lost the ball too many times, but we did it way better, and then just before half-time we score, good that we scored that one, and then go into half-time knowing that it’s going to be difficult in the second half, even with ten men, but we’ve been in the same position before. “We said we don’t want it to happen again, and then it’s just a shame that it happens again, because when it’s just one more minute to play it can happen, and of course I know from last season that it happened too many times, so that’s something that just has to be looked at and has to be better. “I can speak for myself, I’m working very hard to not be in that position. It’s just about being a bit smarter with the ball, not giving it away unopposed, or recognising where they press and where they have the advantage. “At one point if they press you on one side and everybody’s one-v-one, it doesn’t really matter that they have a man less than us, and you need to recognise where they do that, and that’s something that we really need to be better at. Hopefully we can look at it this week, that it just not happens again, because for the fans and for us, it’s just too recurring, and that’s not good.” “If you are with one man more on the pitch, you think you would have more of the ball and more of the ball in their half, and that’s not the case, so that’s something that we actually definitely need to be better at,” the centre-back added. “If it’s against ten, that stands if it would’ve been against 11, so it’s something that we need to be better at, and it doesn’t feel good on the pitch. I didn’t feel like they were going to score, that’s not what I’m saying, but we did invite them to get the chance to score, and that’s what happened in the last minute.” The Terriers now turn their attention towards the start of their League One campaign, which gets underway at home to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, and on the prospect of kick-starting their season this weekend, Balker added: “We hoped to do it today, but next week with the fans, hopefully a lot of fans are coming, hopefully good weather, and then hopefully with the fans we can set it right again.”