Against one of the best attacking forces in the division and one of the leagues best strikers in Ched Evans (who's brace settled the tie in favour of the Blades) Prestons defence performed magnificently with Brown and Robertson performing well. Aaron Browns debut was mixed to say the least, in the first half he was poor and was at fault for the first goal and gave away a needless penalty, but people who have seen the replays said that Brown was perhaps unlucky, but as I haven't seen the replays of the incident yet I can only comment on what I saw as it was down the other end of the pitch. Nicky Hunt again showed why he should be at right back ahead of David Gray with another strong performance as United had no joy down our right hand flank and had to resort to our left hand flank which was where we were weakest, particularly in the first half, but Paul Parry did admirably in the circumstances as Jamie McAllister had to pull out due to injury and it remains to be seen whether his loan spell from Bristol City will be extended or not as the game would have been his last before the loan expired. The game also strongly reinforced the opinion that Thorsten Stuckmann is not only one of the best keepers outside the football league but a dead certainty for player of the season despite only signing at the beginning of November on a short term deal which became longer at the end of 2011, his penalty save against Evans was his sixth since signing and showing how he is an expert when it comes to penalty saving and also pulled off a string of magnificent saves to keep Preston in the game when Sheffield United pushed for a late winner which they unfortunately got with 7 minutes remaining when Evans smashed home from a corner giving Stuckmann no chance only seconds after he made a world class save to stop the ball looping over his head into the net.
Westley said after the game that he felt more satisfied with the display yesterday than the 1-0 win against Hartlepool on Tuesday and I agree with him even though we lost the game. Sheffield United are in formidable form at the moment, even more so at Bramall Lane with one of the best home records in the division and Preston were only 7 minutes from coming away with a very valuable point, the fact that the players got a standing ovation at the end of the game shows how hard the players worked and that they never gave up in what would have been one of the hardest games in the league, it shows a marked improvement already over the Brown era as we lost 5-2 to Charlton and 3-1 at Huddersfield where the players looked lethargic and lazy (just look at Ashbee) whereas the players were committed for the entire game which also shows that slowly but surely, Westleys new methods are starting to work. It is also interesting to note that only Paul Parry and Barry Nicholson were the only people who started both yesterday and in the season opener against Colchester with 7 of the starting line up yesterday being Westley signings with 24 players now having made their debut this season which is a club record.
It was particularly pleasing to see Graham Cummins score his first goal for the club in only his second game (and his second game in 4 months) with a fantastic header to give Preston the lead after 38 minutes and his reaction shows how much it means to him to be scoring in a Preston shirt and it is this sort of attitude that will get Preston moving in the right direction again, and it is a shame that a lot of the players last season didn't have this attitude as then we might not have been in League One in the first place. We started to create more going forward as well which is a positive at a place where away teams don't often score and for most of the second half we were in fact in the ascendancy and were pushing for a winner until the introduction of ex PNE loanee Lee Williamson which changed the game in Uniteds favour. Talking to some United fans after the game and they were very impressed with Holroyd even though he wasn't in his natural position as during the game he started on the right wing and ended on the left wing but he grafted all game long without much reward but he set up Nicky Hunt to cross for our goal and it is only a matter of time before he gets a goal himself which he would deserve as his workrate has been fantastic even though he has spent pretty much all of the time on the wings despite being a natural striker, with defensive responsibilities comes attacking prosperity which will no doubt come soon as attacking movement will start to be worked on more in training
Next up will be Walsall at home next Saturday, it was the reverse fixture where the faults in Browns team started to be exposed after a lacklustre performance saw Preston fall to back to back defeats with a 1-0 loss against a ten man outfit on a sunny October afternoon. It will be another stern test for the young team and back to back home wins would be a very good way to end a very quiet February which has only seen 3 games played due to the weather postponing both Brentford and Tranmere, games which will both be played in March which will mean we will be playing 9 games next month which is every Saturday and Tuesday. It will be these 9 games which decide whether a late play off push is possible or is mid table mediocrity where we'll be in spring, but while progress is slow (which is to be expected) at least things are starting to go in the right direction again.
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