…. my guesstimate of the chances of us remaining in the Championship next season increased from 1.75% to 5%. That was as much to do with the way the other results went as us picking up three points and denying West Brom any. Weirdly the odds on us avoiding the drop after this initially shortened from 1/9 to 1/12 before lengthening to 1/3 then 4/11. Still very much odds on obviously.
We still have a game left against Wednesday as do Leicester and West Brom who visit Hillsborough on the last day of the season. Blackburn have already played them twice but dropped two points away. Wednesday have lost their last 13 games but nothing is a given, is it? They visit the Kassam for the penultimate game of the campaign.
But enough of this; it will all be rendered absolutely meaningless if we don’t win a lot of football matches from here on in. Wouldn’t it be nice to start by doing something we’ve not done since January 2025 by winning two games in a row? Whisper it, Preston have picked up fewer points over the past 10 games than we have.
I’ve got to thank a couple of mates for their driving and more for helping make this the experience that it turned out to be. Firstly Mark H for braving the M6 on a Friday afternoon (bloody Sky) and getting us to Warrington for the first leg of our journey. Secondly Ian for putting us up for the night, providing a fry up on Saturday morning and taking us to the match.
By 17:45 we were in the Black Horse, a pub we visited last season. Then I thought the beer was average; much more impressed this time. Although there was reasonable choice on offer, I stuck with Robinson’s Dizzy Blonde. It’s a Victorian Grade II listed pub with a very interesting interior. Not the biggest of pubs and there were a fair few drinkers in but it never reached the point of being overcrowded although it was hard not to end up close enough to strangers to feel that a conversation ought to be started.
Last season in the PNE away FV I wrote this: “If it wasn’t for football, I wouldn’t have been chatting to a Preston fan (Dave) before the game who I met through working in the Civil Service back in the day. Probably not seen him for about 40 years. Without football we’d never have kept in touch. With football it’s easy to pick up the conversation as if it was yesterday.” That chat lasted just 10-15 minutes outside Deepdale before the game as he’d been watching his grandson play football earlier. This time he joined us over beers for a couple of hours (thank you Sky). Football conversation just flows. The North End fans are not happy with their team. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why given their current form. Passing around at the back. Going nowhere. Get as far as the half-way line and then retreat because they’re frightened to cross it. That kind of thing.
Being a local we left it to Dave to pick a second pub. A few minutes later we were in the Guild Ale House, Preston’s first micro pub, opened in 2016. Very different to the Black Horse but also very much the kind of place that appeals to me. I can’t remember what beer I had but know it was 3.8% abv and very drinkable.
On the CAMRA website both pubs had a two-pint symbol which means the average score for beer quality that members have posted over the last year ranges from 3-3.5 out of 5. I rated them higher than that.
Summing up in one sentence isn’t my way, but if I had to do so for this game it would be this: I thought that after Preston equalised, they showed more quality than us but we came out for the second half fired up, nullified them and became the better team.
It wasn’t long before the game that I got in the ground but I couldn’t resist a pie even with kick-off approaching. They seem to be so much tastier up north and actually have something under the pastry that you can get stuck into.
I’d expected to walk up the steps into the stand, turn, and see an array of empty seats to choose from. Instead I had to shake my head in disbelief. All I could see was bodies. The weekend had only just started, people have jobs, it was quite a way from home and the game was on the TV. This was some support numbers-wise – and with regard to noise and backing of the team too. If the players can be seen to be giving their all then the fans will too. I’m proud to be a supporter of our club on a night like this.
It means so much to so many. Unified by a common passion. Many of those around me I’d never seen before but clearly more or less regulars. I could tell by the reactions, the tension, the facial expressions. With all the shite that is going on in the world, it’s an escape. Grown men, some (like me) pensioners, throwing back the years and behaving in a way they wouldn’t in any other environment. There’s the language for a start.
I’ve used this quote before and I’ll probably use it again in the future. “Football, the most important of the unimportant things.” That said, when you’re totally consumed by what is happening on the pitch and have forgotten everything else it does momentarily become the most important thing.
Oh, the stress. It gets worse with age. I gestured to some younger lads to stop singing “we are staying up” when we were winning 2-1. Don’t tempt fate. They didn’t care. Are younger people more carefree? Were we all like that at that age, whatever age that is?
Obviously, my mates and I did find three seats together to stand in front of but we had to walk quite a way up the steps to get them.
Free-kicks and corners usually take ages with the referee giving one lecture after another about holding and pulling and then completely ignoring what he’s said by allowing shirt pulling, grappling and rugby tackles as part of the game. So when we were awarded a free-kick with less than five minutes gone I thought I’d have ample time to stick the wooden fork in my still very warm pie and take another bite. I only just looked up in time to see the ball enter the net at the far end of the ground.
Needless to say I had to watch the replay to know what went on. Whilst there’s nothing like being on site for the action, anyone sat in front of the Sky coverage will have a much better view of it all. How often does a person sat on their sofa turn to someone next to them and ask “who scored that?” Happens a lot in grounds where the reply will be “I think it might have been…” or “not a clue”.
Jamie Donley was bundled over 10 yards inside our half challenging for a high ball cleared by our defence. A free-kick was rightly awarded. (If the challenge had been on Will Lankshear we would not have got the kick. Nor would we have got a penalty if the incident had happened in the box. These are unwritten football laws of which all Championship referees are aware).
Michal Helik raised an arm asking for the ball. Cameron Brannagan obliged, picking out his run getting goal-side of his marker, Lewis Gibson. Helik kept his eyes focused on the ball, taking it on his chest and even though it took a while to drop, used his body to keep Lewis away from it. It wasn’t the cleanest of connections from close range but it was on target and enough to beat keeper David Cornell on the bounce. I joined in the unexpected early celebrations whilst protecting what remained of my pie.
We should have gone two up soon after. Most teams struggle to deal with half decent long throws into their box. Preston couldn’t get a Myles Peart-Harris throw properly away and Stan Mills’s inviting ball back in from the other side presented Ciaran Brown with an easy chance but he timed his jump all wrong and put the ball well over.
That miss became even more frustrating when, in the 12th minute, we were no longer ahead. The hosts had played a number of passes in front of our rearguard patiently keeping the ball before a very good centre was bent into our box. Montenegro international Milutin Osmajic got between our centre-halves to clinically head home for his 7th league goal of the season.
It all looked so easy, providing a reminder that despite their very poor recent record Preston could play some football and have some good players in their ranks. For most teams form comes and goes. With 26 games played on Jan 4th the home side were 4th on 43 points. I didn’t want that good form to return now.
Getting the ball into their box from set pieces continued to provide chances with the Preston defence not looking confident. Donley put one wide after Will Lankshear had an effort blocked. Not pretty but it was pressure and our most likely route to getting another goal.
We had to defend in numbers ourselves, but from one of these episodes Stan Mills picked the ball up on the edge of our box and drove straight down the middle to the one at the other end and put a shot over. He’s deceptively quick. It would have been some goal if he had been able to convert.
Lankshear really should have put us back in the lead but was too slow taking a poor touch when a first time shot with just the keeper to beat would almost certainly have brought success. It was a great pass from Donley that set him up.
We’re not renowned for our goal scoring, not even averaging one per game, so I began to wonder of we’d pay for this profligacy. The other side of the coin is that defensively we’ve tightened up since the cock up at home to Norwich and so were unlikely to crumble. Just a point however, whilst not to be sniffed at, wasn’t what we were after at all and if anyone had wanted to hug such a thing I would have called them barking mad at this stage of the season.
Those missed opportunities did not affect our confidence and within ten minutes of the restart we were back in front. Again we had men forward for a set piece and were able to recycle the ball with bodies remaining forward. A high ball contested by Helik and two defenders found its way to a few yards outside the area from where it was hit low and hard first time by Mills. It was probably going just wide but the faintest of touches by Lankshear’s toe ensured it went in just by the post. Before I knew it, I was up on my seat as if I was a 15-year-old. Stop it.
Just past the hour we had a two-goal lead. Another Peart-Harris throw was headed on by Helik and Brown, ignoring the shirt pulling and holding by Gibson, used his strength and got on with the job of getting the ball into the back of the net. He swung his leg at the ball. Gibson only had eyes on Brown.
Marvellous.
We defended as we had to and never got into squeaky bum territory with the two-goal cushion kept intact.
A thoroughly deserved victory in a game where we created the better chances by some distance. We had 15 shots, seven of which were on target. Preston had 13 with four of those on target but I don’t recall them missing easy chances, us needing a desperate block or Jamie Cumming being particularly stretched.
We only had 30% possession but that’s not a problem. It’s the way we play. Our passing accuracy was 65% compared to Preston’s 82% but it’s what you do where on the pitch that matters. I didn’t detect flaws in our play here. I can’t recall us continually passing to a white shirt or knocking it out of play.
Obviously, a team’s passing accuracy is made up of that of eleven individuals. (Yes, in this day and age the goalkeeper is included in that too). The stats for those individuals are now available too although what actually constitutes a pass and what just a clearance, I’ve no idea. Nevertheless I thought why not have a look at the numbers attributed to our guys. Our most accurate passer of the ball was Jack Currie who only played the first half with 85.7% effectiveness but he only made seven passes. Will Lankshear was next best on 83.3% which, given the way he plays, is a bit surprising. He made 12 passes in the 70 minutes he was on the pitch The person who made by far the most passes was Brannagan which demonstrates how involved he is and how important he is to us. I had no complaints about Yunus Konak but despite having 80 minutes game time he only played nine passes. Branagan’s accuracy was 75.8%. Konak’s 66.7%. The outfield player with the worst accuracy ratings was Sam Long on 55.6% having attempted 18. By far the poorest though was a miserable 19.2% from 26 passes and that’s Jamie Cumming. It’s long been said it would help if his distribution was better.
I’m no way though going be critical of these players because they all did their jobs magnificently. The defenders defended and got two of our three goals. At the end of the day it is goals scored and goals conceded that are the only stats that really matter.
My survival guesstimate after the weekend’s football rose from 5% to 15%. The odds again firstly shortened (I really don’t know what that’s all about) before lengthening to 1/2 then 4/6.
It would have been helpful if Leicester and West Brom had not picked up points at Ipswich and Sheffield United respectively but there’s no way results will always fall as kindly for us as they had done in the previous round of fixtures. We’re not the only team fighting for our lives. Others near the bottom will get points here and there against teams much higher up the table than them. On the bright side we gained two points on the Foxes and the Baggies. Blackburn, our opponents on Wednesday night, could only draw at home to Pompey. I’m looking at this with a glass half full outlook, trying to ignore the fact that their equaliser was in the 90+3rd minute. Got to watch out for them in added time, they got the only goal of the game against Preston in the 5th minute of added time a couple of weeks back.
I can feel the pressure of this coming fixture as I type this. Every game gets more immense. We’ve got more points over the last six games than Rovers and if we win will be within a single point of them. Lose and it’s seven. Yes, immense and some.
Mustn’t forget that Leicester have appealed against their six-point deduction. What an impact that could have at the bottom of the table. The Appeal Board could actually increase the penalty although that is unlikely. Needs to be sorted pdq.
Then there’s FOSB appealing for funds so that they can try and seek a judicial review against the Triangle. If this small group is so confident they have a good case, why don’t they put the £50k up themselves? I despair; I really do.
My heart goes out to the family and friends of Amelia Aplin. There’s no words.
Cherish each day everyone.
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