One step forward two steps back

Graham Westleys wait for his first win as Preston manager continues after a disappointing 2-1 defeat at relegation strugglers Yeovil Town. A brace from Andy Williams put Yeovil 2-0 up after Craig Morgan was sent off after 2 minutes for a proffesional foul on Williams himself as he ran through on goal. Clarke Carlisle pulled a goal back late on when he headed home from close range and despite a late Preston rally and a red card for Paul Huntingdon it was a case of too little too late as Yeovil held on for the points.

Thorsten Stuckmann was again in inspired form to keep Preston in the game after Morgan was sent off and made some world class saves in an attempt to keep the Yeovil attack at bay but even his heroics couldn't keep Williams out forever and around half an hour into the game a long ball split the defence in half and Williams ran through to roll the ball past Stuckmann. Preston were massively on the back foot and Yeovil should have been a couple of goals up by half time but Stuckmann at least kept Preston in it as the whistle went for half time. After an encouraging defensive display against Notts County, Preston were a shadow of this at times and David Gray was left exposed to give Williams the easy task of side footing home from close range to double their lead and pretty much guarantee the points for Gary Johnsons men. But the goal seem to install at least some fight in the Preston players and from the only shot on target Carlisle managed to reduce the defecit after heading the ball from close range.

What is continually worrying from a fans point of view is that we again only mustered one shot on target and that was the goal, Yeovil had over 10 shots on target and there is no way that we'll win a football game with those sort of statistics, granted we only had 10 men for most of the game, but as Westley said in his post match interview, we can't blame the defeat and a poor performance on the fact that we were down to 10 men and if it wasn't for Stuckmann in net, it could easily have been more than a one goal defecit.

After one month of 2012 it is fair to say there has been some promise in flashes, but overall it continues to be mediocre, the only win came after a 3-2 win over Wycombe and we only picked up 5 points out of a possible 15 which is not good form by any stretch of the imagination in a run of games which most fans would have seen as distinctly winnable, particularly when compared to February when Preston play Brentford, Tranmere, Hartlepool, Sheffield United and Walsall which on average are harder games than the teams we have played this month, I only hope that Westley has installed some fight in the players like we showed for the last 15 minutes against Yeovil or else I can't see us picking up many points this month.

The first step

Last night saw Preston register their first points under Graham Westley with a hard fought 0-0 draw away to Notts County, a game of very few chances saw the home team on top for most of the game but couldn't find their way past a resilient back 4 which looked solid for the first time since the 1-0 win at MK and incidentally it was the first clean sheet since that game as well. Preston were also the first team to stop Notts County scoring at home as well which will provide many positives for Westley.

While Preston may have only had one shot on target, something which seems to have annoyed a minority of fans, the fact that we went to Notts County (particularly after the dour performance on Saturday against Leyton  Orient) and finally looked like we had a solid defence is a very good platform for us to build on. After taking substantial criticism from Preston fans on twitter Saturday night Clarke Carlisle delivered one of his best performances in a Preston shirt and gave the perfect response to the criticism with a fantastic partnernership with Craig Morgan who was praised by Westley after the game. David Gray also had a Man of the Match performance, even spilling blood for the cause as the defensive line held firm which is a contrast to some defensive performances recently and providing some welcome respite for Thorsten Stuckmann who continues to be a shining light and one of the big reasons for the defensive stability at the moment.

Last night also featured the first time (and probably last time) that Preston played in the third kit. This was due to the fact that both home and away kits clashed with Notts County's home kit and they weren't going to change into their away kit as they were at home so the red kit was adopted, personally I think it's rather stylish but I don't think it'll be in the shops, apart from a limited time in May for a ridiculously high price like £50 like we did for a third kit a few seasons ago.

At least we now have a platform to build on and the team is starting to work together after looking very disjointed against Leyton Orient. Preston travel to Yeovil at the weekend which will not be an easy game due to the appointment of fans favourite Gary Johnson as manager only a few weeks ago, they might be in the relegation places, but they will provide a stern test for Preston as Westley aims for his first win as Preston manager, at least he's identified the problems on the pitch and is taking measures to alleviate them, if the defensive stability continues, no doubt we will start going forward with more confidence as well

Rome wasn't built in a day

All the optimism of the arrival of Graham Westley was blown away on a cold Saturday where a dire performance from Preston saw them fall to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Leyton Orient, while there were one or two signs of resilience in the first half but it seemed Preston left their brains in the dressing room in the second half and Orient carved us open numerous times until taking the lead after 67 minutes when Marc Laird impressively curled the ball around a helpless Thorsten Stuckmann from 20 yards, then some lazy defending allowed Jimmy Smith to fire the ball home after collecting a cross and giving Stuckmann no chance from 10 yards. Despite the change of manager it could be fair to say that was our worst performance of the season but it would be very harsh to lay the blame at the managers door.

However I wouldn't say he was blameless from todays game as there were some aspects of his team selection which were quite puzzling. The main query I had with his selection was starting Brian McLean at right back and leaving David Gray on the bench, this unbalanced the team somewhat and it was down this flank where we were cut open for the first goal. Another puzzling decision was the way the strikers were organised, Proctor, Jervis and Holroyd all started the game and it was unclear who was supposed to go where, after almost 40 minutes Jervis was substituted for Nicholson which also was a strange substitution in my eyes as Jervis hadn't done that badly upto that point, if anything we were worse from this point onwards as we seemed to play 4-3-3 but we had no attacking force whatsoever, while Holroyd got man of the match I think this was the incorrect decision as once again Paul Coutts was the driving force in midfield and at the moment is the only shining light in the team at the moment (along with Stuckmann)

Of the three debutantes I thought McAllister was the best of the three as we finally looked half decent at left back and we were relatively untroubled down that flank, particularly when compared to the other side, Procter was fairly antonymous but this is to be expected considering he's never trained with the players before and perhaps you might wonder why he was started if that was the case. As stated earlier Holroyd was given man of the match but he didn't have that great of a game, but like the others he hadn't trained with the other players before and spent most of the game on the right wing which wasn't his natural position. Jamie Proctor had another poor game today and if Harry Bunn hadn't been injured I doubt he would have been in the team as he offered very little today despite having a decent start to the game, what a difference half a year makes for the young Prestonian who was tipped to be the next big thing after an explosive pre season but now most fans are calling for him to be dropped from the team after only 3 goals this season.

There isn't long to wait until the next game as we travel to Notts County on Tuesday night for the second game out of 3 in 7 days and arguably the toughest one out of the three (we travel to Yeovil the following Saturday) and it would take a big turnaround for us to come away with three points but as we've seen this season, anything is possible, but today has shown every Preston fan that it won't be an instant turnaround and it is vital that we give Westley our full support as he tries to turn us from an underachieving League One team, to a successful Championship team again.

Lastly but certainly not least it was heart warming to see the reception the late Katy Holmes received at 10 past 3 with a minutes applause, every fan in the stadium stood and it was a magnificent tribute to such a brave young girl who had her life cruelly taken from her at such a young age, unfortunately I did not know her personally, but I speak for everyone when I say that heaven has gained an angel, an inspiration for everyone, may you rest in peace.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

After a few mediocre performances really there is a feeling of optomism around Deepdale after a 3-2 home win against struggling Wycombe, despite being second best for most of the first half, an inspired change to 4-4-2 saw Preston dominate the game and had Steven Smith not been harshly sent off just after we got our third goal there is no doubt that we could have won by more than 1 or 2 goals.

But the first 40 minutes before the change we were playing probably the worst we had played all season and Wycombe were unlucky not to be 3-0 up by the time Harry Bunn netted his first goal for the club on his debut, Thorsten Stuckmann was in fine form and was keeping us in the game making some fine saves and was unlucky to concede the first goal after good work from Marcello Trotta to fire right into the bottom corner after just 8 minutes. Taking off Barton for Mayor was a brilliant decision by the caretakers and when we went 4-4-2 they had no answer for the pace of Parry and Mayor who dominated when in possesion. It has to be said though that Wycombe were awful at defending corners, our first two goals came from the keeper coming for the ball and totally missing with Bunn and Jarvis having very simple chances to score on their home debuts.

Harry Bunn was deserving of his man of the match award as he caused Wycombes defence problems all game and created several chances and was unlucky not to add to the goal he got just before half time, it is very pleasing that he's on a loan to the end of the season as he is a very similar player to Hume and with Hume out for a while with a torn hamstring it appears that his absence will be minimal if Bunn continues this form for the rest of the season. Jake Jervis continued to impress and got his second goal in two games with a poachers effort tapping in from two yards with the ball bobbling around the penalty area. It also seems that we've found a more dependable penalty taker than Alexander as Parry made it two in two with a well placed effort sending Nikki Bull the wrong way. It was just after that that the game was turned on its head when Steven Smith was given a debatable second yellow card for a challenge on the half way line, we defended very well onwards apart from one lapse in concentration and Trotta pounced to score his second of the game and create a tense finale, but despite six minutes of added on time, most of them were spent in front of the Town End and Preston got a deserved victory.

Today was the last game with Alexander and Unsworth in charge before Graham Westley takes charge on Monday, they signed off with a win and a record of 2 wins 2 draws and 1 defeat which isn't great but not bad and fans will surely remember them best for a magnificent 1-0 win away at MK Dons just days after Phil Brown had been sacked, some of that football was replicated today when the switch to 4-4-2 was made and perhaps if they had managed to get us playing like that for all 5 games then perhaps they might have had the job full time but they deserve a lot of credit for getting us through this difficult time still in the top 10 with a chance at the play offs, what they have given us is optimism for the future and a belief which can certainly be harnessed by Westley when he takes training for the first time on Monday Morning. His appointment has been welcomed by the majority of Preston fans and I certainly think that he can get us to the play offs at the end of the season (possibly overhauling Stevenage in the proccess) and if it goes brilliantly we could yet be a Championship team again by the summer, there's certainly positivity again, how long it lasts remains to be seen, along with the futures of Alexander and Unsworth as Westley is bringing his own staff to Preston

New Year, Same problems

Preston's disappointing 1-1 draw against local rivals Rochdale raised more questions than answers. We have been Jekyll and Hyde recently, the team that fought back to draw 3-3 against Carlisle and beat MK Dons 1-0 away (the only team to have done so this season) and yet we tamely lost 2-0 to Sheffield Wednesday and were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw against a team in the relegation zone. It wasn't as if we were banging on the door to score a second goal, we only had one shot which threatened the keeper and that was our goal from the impressive Jake Jervis who made his debut and got on the scoresheet after 16 minutes. Jamie Proctor was once again disappointing and a rant about the fans on Twitter after the game has landed him in hot water. He was venting his anger at being cheered off when he was subsituted. But when it's an away game and fans have paid money to come and watch Preston, that gives them the right to say what they want, and it wasn't as if they were on his back when he was on the pitch and also, not many fans were cheering him off anyway but it shows the dangers that Twitter can have for proffesional sportsmen, (just look at Joey Barton)

As a PNE fan it is worrying how we look poor in attack when Hume and Mellor are absent, granted if you take the two best players out of any of the teams in this league and they would struggle, but you would expect us to have some attacking force against a team in the bottom half and this was severely lacking. Our goal came from a scrappy corner and we never actually broke down a stubborn and organised Rochdale defence, on the other hand we just sat back and let the Rochdale players run at us. Adam Barton has gone back to what he was before the Sheffield Wednesday game and Paul Coutts probably had his worst game in a Preston shirt since he signed 2 years ago. It was apparent that there was no midfield bite at all, our defence played well but was shaky at times, the centre back partnership of Carlisle and Morgan was solid if not assured, but it was certainly better than when they partnered each other against Colchester on the opening day of the season. It is also good to see that we have brought in Harry Bunn on loan from Manchester City, both in the JPT and the league game he tormented our defences and in the league game particularly he gave Mclaughlin a torrid time and won a penalty while in the JPT he scored to level the game at 1-1 with a shot from outside the penalty area. This kind of player can only be beneficial to Preston and if he makes the kind of start that Jervis has had he will be a good player for us and it is positive that he has signed a loan deal up until the end of the season which would include the Play Offs if we got our act together and got up the table.

Looking onwards, either this week or next we will discover who the next permanent manager of Preston will be, some want Billy Davies, some want the caretakers to get the job, and other names have been mentioned. I think the placcid displays against Sheffield Wednesday and particularly Rochdale might have ruled out Alexander and Unsworth for the job, but I certainly think that they will make good managers in the future, particularly if they could replicate the MK Dons performance on a regular basis. What they have managed to do is instill a sense of belief in the team, the supporters are getting behind the team again after the torrid tenure of Brown, no doubt we would have lost to Rochdale if Brown was still manager, we only have to look to the defeat away to Bury to confirm that. But whoever the manager is, they will certainly get my full support and I certainly hope we make the right decision as we can't go on sacking managers the way we are doing because it's not good for stability. Luckily enough we don't have a game this weekend as we aren't in the FA Cup and Notts County are so that gives the board plenty of time to come to the right conclusions over who the next PNE manager will be, and I am certain that whoever they choose, they can get the team up into the top 6, because on our day, we are one of the best teams in the league as we have proved on occasion this season.

A poor way to end a poor year

Yesterdays game against Sheffield Wednesday summed up 2011 pretty well,  some glimpses of good form and positivity, but overall it was very poor. Goals at the start and the end of the first half killed off any hope of Preston taking home any points but it's fair to say that we wouldn't have deserved them if we had taken anything from the game, although you'd be forgiven for thinking we deserved something if you had read our official website which made it look like we were very unlucky to lose when in fact we were outplayed for long periods of the game and really Sheffield Wednesday never went higher than third gear. From a PNE fans view both goals were soft and our defence has to hold its' hands up and admit it went awol for both. I strongly believe no team should ever concede from a short corner, and the way we let them walk into our area and bundle the ball in was not acceptable for a league two team. David Gray got his angles all wrong for the second goal and headed past Stuckmann into the net, although the goal wasn't given as an own goal to spare his blushes, but you would expect someone of Gray's caliber to cut out the cross instead of putting it into the net. The second goal killed the game off as far as it was pretty certain that we were going to lose. But the most worrying thing to come out of the game was Hume limping off after 30 minutes, this along with a long term injury for Mellor is very bad news as our two main strikers could be out for a very long time. But in the short term at least we have signed Jake Jervis on loan from Birmingham for a month, and really he can't be any worse than Brown's striker signings.....

Courtesy of pnefc.net

In my last post I was critical of Alexander and Unsworth playing Barton, but in my opinion Barton was man of the match against Sheffield Wednesday. Unlike the last few games he got stuck in and was more comfortable in possession, he made himself available for passes and tried to get forward whenever possible. But our big problem yesterday was what we did in the final play, apart from the two goals our defence was very solid and midfield was good at going forward, but we seemed to have no idea what to do with the ball when we got to the edge of the area, too often we ended up going backwards once we got anywhere near the opposition goal. It wasn't until the last twenty minutes that we started to get balls into the box and have shots and on another day Parry might have had a goal or two when he headed just wide and had a shot cleared off the line. Douglas was impressive again and might be pushing for a start tomorrow if he keeps this current form up as his all round play has been superb so far and he himself was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet late on.

Courtesy of pnefc.net

I'm sure every single Preston fan is relieved that 2011 has now passed and it surely has to be up there as one of the worst in living memory, the year that saw us drop into League One for the first time in 10 years and the massive disappointment that we dropped off from 2nd in the league in late September to ending the year in 11th, 20 points away from the summit. There has been some highs, the home wins against Swansea, Coventry and Sheffield United in late March and early April that gave us hope that the great escape might just be possible, but some even bigger lows, like relegation and two runs of not winning for 13 games. But 2012 begins with an away tie against local rivals Rochdale in what will be the final game for Unsworth and Alexander before Ridsdale makes a decision on who the next permanent manager will be. Without a doubt, three points tomorrow against the relegation threatened team would make their claims more viable for the job, but a defeat could possibly rule them out of the job as we try to ensure they don't do the double over us after they won 1-0 at Deepdale in late November.

But Happy New Year everyone, and let's hope 2012 brings more joy to PNE than the last few years have done.