Graham Westley's poor start as Preston manager continued last night after a drab 0-0 draw against relegation candidates Chesterfield on a fairly warm Tuesday night but there was nothing on the pitch to add to the temperature as both teams could only muster one shot on target each and it was a result which was met which a loud chorus of boos, I have certainly never heard a draw met with that response before, I've heard defeats met with a less hostile response than that before!
The game itself was basically two poor teams trying too hard to win the game, it would be fair to say that Chesterfield were the worst away team to visit Deepdale this season and it says a lot about the standard of football we are playing at the moment that the game ended goaless and Chesterfield almost nicked it at the end when ex Preston player Neal Trotman headed against the bar with only seconds left on the clock but a draw was always likely to be the outcome. Preston did actually create one or two chances with both Danny Mayor and Iain Hume dragging shots wide, but these were half chances at best and were never likely to trouble the Chesterfield keeper who may as well have had a nap on the goal line as he was rarely called into action, but then the same could be said for Stuckmann who only had one save to make in the entire game and that was a scuffed shot which rolled tamely into his arms. There were only two positives that I could take out of last nights game, it's our 4th clean sheet in 8 games which shows that defensively we are a stronger unit and we've now only lost 1 of our last 5 home games which aint that bad considering we have had a poor home record in recent times.
However, the more worrying aspect of the team at the moment is how poor we are going forward, we haven't scored since the Sheffield United game almost a month ago and we have only scored 3 times in 8 games which is relegation material, the main problem seems to be a severe lack of coherency in the oppositions half, with pretty much all our 'attacks' we would get to the edge of the area, panic and get confused over what to do next and then lose the ball, thankfully Chesterfield had the same problems and explains pretty much why the game ended 0-0. Westley said before the game that the players had been working on their set pieces however on last nights viewing it seems they hadn't been working very well, we had a series of corners and a few free kicks around the penalty area but none of them led to a shot on or off target as every time the keeper easily collected or the defence cleared and Chesterfield went on the attack.
It was good to see Danny Devine and Bailey Wright back in the squad and they both had good games as Devine played the full game and Wright came on as a sub and had a solid and assured half an hour, our of position as well, at left back and looked very comfortable. For me Devine was man of the match, he was strong, assured, won his tackles and always made sure he won the ball in the air, you wouldn't have thought he had only made a handful of appearances and had only made his debut less than a year ago. Hopefully he can keep his place for Saturday and it'll be hard for players like Craig Morgan and Aaron Brown to get their places back in the team, but that's how it should be and hopefully our defence can continue to improve, which it has to considering how ineffective our strikeforce is at the moment.
Next up in Mad (or Mediocre as it seems) March is Scunthorpe United at home, like us, Scunthorpe had hoped for a promotion campaign this season but they have been very disappointment and have spent the season in and around the relegation zone. With Preston in the form we're in at the moment it is imperative that we beat them otherwise we really could be dragged into a relegation battle whereas a win could kick start a revival which at the very least should mean we don't end up fighting to stay up. Ironically it was a 3-0 win at this time last season against Scunthorpe that started a fightback from 13 points adrift of safety to within 4 points at one point in the Championship and hopefully we can get a similar result on Saturday as with a very difficult April looming it is important that we can get to 50 points sooner rather than later.
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