20/21 Matchday Thread

[SF_]

Yeah, i'd be pissed off to hear any Preston player say they'expect' to beat anyone, apart from Blackpool.

We've been down in L1 where we were 'expected' to beat teams like Crawley, Colchester & Walsall... and didn't.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Blackburn haven’t beaten us in 19 previous attempts in the league either. Their only recent win was a 4-0 win in the FA Cup when the likes of Morten Gamst Pederson scored.

 

[Super_horns]

So is that a point gained for both Coventry and Birmingham or 2 points dropped?

Given they were both home and away at the same time!

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Another masterclass in being shite from us. Changed the system and made 4 changed after a really encouraging performance at Watford. Mystifying.

 

[thewwfc]

I could say this about most teams in the division, but I’d be perfectly happy with a point vs Brentford.

 

[TractorBoys]

Don't forget to take advantage of a £10 free bet today from Betiton with any qualifying deposit of £15 or more.

Do so here; Betiton.com

 

[Atavistic]

Not many changes to our team today, just Gibson returning in defence and Hugill replacing Pukki as the starting striker. That should better serve us against the physical threat Boro will provide, while also giving Pukki a little more recovery time after his involvement with Finland during the international break.

Only real oddity is that Cantwell is once again entirely absent from the squad, despite Farke stating that he was fit during yesterday's press conference. Instead, we have two keepers on the bench which is a bizarre move to say the least.

 

[SF_]

Rudd
Fisher, Bauer, Huntington, Rafferty
Ledson, Johnson
Barkhuizen, Potts, Sinclair
Riis
​

Very patched up defence and midfield, nice to see Barkhuizen back in the side but Wednesday should be beating that team.

 

[Atavistic]

Not watching today, but it sounds like Hugill has picked up an injury of some sort today (EDIT: shoulder injury, it seems, so shouldn't be out for too long with any luck). Hopefully nothing serious, as expecting Pukki to play every game between now and January (when we'd be able to bring someone new in) is far too risky. Especially with Hugill looking like a complete waste of the £3 or so million we spent on him so far; offers a different option, sure, but when that different option is "carthorse who never looks like scoring" it's really not helpful.

Apparently Drmic isn't even in the country at the moment, so if Hugill is injured for any notable length of time we do have a problem with Idah also being injured. Don't know if we've got anyone in the Under 23s who could potentially step up, but we'll have our hand forced if Hugill's injury is a serious one I suppose.

EDIT: Pukki from the spot to give us the lead after Boro missed a penalty of their own thanks to a double touch. Lucky or not, we'll absolutely take this away at a Warnock side if we can maintain it.

Top of the league, here we come, and with another clean sheet to boot. Need to aim to maintain this now, though there will definitely be plenty more twists and turns to come.

 

[Craig]

Shite

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

1-1 vs Blackburn. Got the first goal so a slight twinge we didn’t see it out but only had the lead for a few minutes, really disappointed with the goal we conceded, Cranie shouldn’t be losing that header and then either one of Sluga, Pearson, Bradley (more the latter 2 to be fair) should be dealing with the ball.

Thought we played pretty well overall, the first 2/3rds of the pitch we look pretty good, reasonably solid defensivley and in midfield Dewsbury-Hall looks a find and there are other good options in there, but we just can’t get it going in the final 1/3rd of the pitch. Just really anaemic in that area all season for me. Even the goal is a slip from Collins that finds Berry rather than well worked final third play.

Maybe it will come but that bit of quality in that area is where the difference between haves and haves nots is exposed at this level.

 

[SF_]

Happy with the 3pts but without the red card I still don't think we win that.

I suppose you could say we managed that second half well but it was very dull, Barkhuizen & DJ missed good opportunities to make it 2. They didn't have a sniff to be fair.

Gally coming on at half time shows he still has his uses and something left in the tank, did well.

Red was probably a yellow card in reality but we also had a stonewall penalty waved away.

Need to follow it up with another home win.

 

[thewwfc]

I could say this about most teams in the division, but I’d be perfectly happy with a point vs Brentford.

Well that’s what we got and deserved it.

We didn’t play for the point though, we were attacking when it made sense to do so and made far more attacking substitutions than I’d expect.

I’ve upped my confidence level that we can stay up to about 40% on the basis of the last few games, now that the first XI is starting to take shape.

Long way to go but the defence and midfield are solid, we don’t have a Championship quality striker but we could never afford one, and Akinfenwa is going to be a pain in the arse to mark whoever you are, so we just have to play with what we’ve got.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Gavin Ward masterclass today - Bradley Johnson should've been sent off for a second yellow for deliberate handball. And then deep into injury time Sonny Bradley trips up Brereton right on the edge of the area... books him for diving. I'm bored of referees guessing over these things, because it was 100% a foul. That said, he doesn't do himself any favours by spending half the match on the floor constantly looking for fouls.

I think a draw was fair in the end, but for the final 5-10 minutes we were holding on. Not so easy was it Rothwell? They still haven't won at Kenilworth Road since 1937 in the League... 20 attempts and counting.

Again though we get a narrow lead and can't hold onto it. We need to score more goals... we can't afford to keep clean sheets every single week and scrape 1-0 wins.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Gavin Ward masterclass today - Bradley Johnson should've been sent off for a second yellow for deliberate handball. And then deep into injury time Sonny Bradley trips up Brereton right on the edge of the area... books him for diving. I'm bored of referees guessing over these things, because it was 100% a foul. That said, he doesn't do himself any favours by spending half the match on the floor constantly looking for fouls.

I think a draw was fair in the end, but for the final 5-10 minutes we were holding on. Not so easy was it Rothwell? They still haven't won at Kenilworth Road since 1937 in the League... 20 attempts and counting.

Again though we get a narrow lead and can't hold onto it. We need to score more goals... we can't afford to keep clean sheets every single week and scrape 1-0 wins.

Agree with this. Ref made some really questionable calls all afternoon in both directions. Luckily i dont think any were game breaking for either side.

Blackburn are a bit strange, seem to think they are massive and should smash us for some reason. Seemingly goes for both the players and fans. They aren’t to my mind one of the preeminent clubs that could justify that view or that hold a side this season - attacking players perhaps aside. Very odd group.

We just dont look all that convincing going forward and despite not being "that sort of side" are very reliant on set pieces to create opportunities. In open play we dont threaten enough at all.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Im on the other side. Thought the ref did well. Wasnt a foul for me Cranie pulls his feet back. Not sure it was a dive either just momentum and coming together. Breteton best player on pitch.

I thiught that was a great battling display from us. Showed we can mix it up and that we have a ton of depth. We are shy with our final pass. We do need more and bettrr crosses and build better from the back rather than play it long - even if Collins is playing.

But we are a work in progress and i like how we look. Blackburn are a very established Champiinship side who prib think they should challenge for promotion and we caused them problems. We are headed in the right direction and growing

 

[SF_]

Agree with this. Ref made some really questionable calls all afternoon in both directions. Luckily i dont think any were game breaking for either side.

Blackburn are a bit strange, seem to think they are massive and should smash us for some reason. Seemingly goes for both the players and fans. They aren’t to my mind one of the preeminent clubs that could justify that view or that hold a side this season - attacking players perhaps aside. Very odd group.

Try living ten miles away from the pricks.

 

[Super_horns]

We just seem to like scoring a goal then sitting back away from home losing any momentum and this time we were lucky not to lose really.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Shite

I see what you are doing. Sneaky

 

[SF_]

Well we're shite and Barnsley are below us so....

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Won 4 out of 5 with the new manager though. Definitely on the up.

 

[Gerry Gow]

Up the shagging City x

 

[Kenneth E End]

I wish we were as shite as Barnsley in the last 5 games!

 

[SF_]

Fisher might be in trouble for this

https://twitter.com/x/status/1330185938732011521

He does that kind of shit all the time, loves an ass grab.

But is it an inside joke we don't know about?

Maybe Paterson has a massive wang that brings good luck.

 

[SF_]

Blackburn at home on Tuesday.

I actually think they'll be the first side to come to Deepdale this season and not set up to frustrate and hit us on the counter. I think they'll come and take the game to us which will work in our favour imo. If Mowbray has a brain then he'll do what everyone else does, two banks of four and let us ponderously fail to break them down.

Pearo came on and looked sharp so should be back for this, Fisher might be banned for the above and imagine, with Hughes injured, that would mean a first start of the season for Josh Earl. Browne will still be missing due to COVID I imagine, although when everyone is fit he'd be on the bench for me.

Rudd
Rafferty, Bauer, Huntington, Earl
Pearson, Ledson
Barkhuizen, Johnson, Sinclair
Riis


Ripley, Storey, Bayliss, O'Reilly, Gallagher, Potts, Harrop, Maguire, Stockley​

 

[Atavistic]

Stoke away on Tuesday night, another tough away trip. And while there's the old cliche of "can [insert skillful player here] do it on a wet Tuesday night in Stoke", they seem to be playing a much more expansive brand of football this season (compared to the Pulisball style that started that cliche) from what I can gather. I'd expect that to play nicely into our hands, but it depends how well we can break through the press they'll surely have.

With Pukki guaranteed to start, we should be a fair bit more cohesive from the start than we were on Saturday with Hugill up front, and even more so if Cantwell recovers from his latest knock and gets himself back into the squad. Only potential concern is that Rupp might miss the match with a hamstring problem, which would seriously reduce the effectiveness of our defensive screen in the midfield in a game where it'll probably be sorely needed; McLean and Tettey are decent cover, but far less effective at this level than Rupp is proving to be so far.

 

[Super_horns]

Fans allowed in Tier 1/2 areas on December 5th?


On BBC site

Fans set to be allowed at outdoor sports

Up to 4,000 fans are set to be allowed at outdoor events in the lowest-risk areas when the national lockdown in England ends.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Atavistic]

And the injuries just keep piling up. Cantwell confirmed to be out for the next three weeks with a hip injury, Hugill is out for at least three weeks but potentially much longer (depending on if his injury requires surgery or not) and Kenny McLean is missing for at least six weeks but could be out until March or April if he needs surgery. Add that to the injuries to Quintilla, Dowell, Hernandez, Byram, Mumba and Idah and we're starting to get down to the bare bones already.

Even a couple of the young options who would've been front of the queue to supply back-up are out with injuries, so not looking good at all currently despite our excellent run of form. I'm not sure if we have recall options on any of our players currently out on loan, but I'm hoping we do to fill in some of these gaps as we're only an injury or two away from all the good work so far this season being undone.

This leaves us with 14 senior outfield players to work with (and with similar injury problems at youth level we may not even be able to scrape a full bench of 9 together), and there's no way we'll get through two games a week every week until January without further injuries, especially as we essentially can't rotate at all now. This could see us drop off the pace a fair bit until we can get some numbers in during the January transfer window, so just have to hope we're not too far off the pace by then.

 

[SF_]

Does this website want any more adverts and shitty betting PMs?

 

[Kenneth E End]

Does this website want any more adverts and shitty betting PMs?

My response to this was deleted over the weekend by you know who.