Rock Bottom

Tuesday night was probably Graham Westleys lowest point as Preston North End manager as he saw his team probably put in the worst performance of the season as they slipped to a tame 3-1 defeat at home to Brentford.  Shaluem Logan put Brentford ahead early on and then a brace from Clayton Donaldson sealed the points for the visitors with Paul Parry slotting home a penalty just before half time to give the home team some hope but there was never any chance of North End taking anything from the game and the crowd made their feelings very clear at full time.

I've been watching Preston as a season ticket holder for almost 10 years now, and last nights performance has got to be up there as one of the worst I have ever seen (and it's got competition). From the first minute to the last, there was no passion, belief or even effort. The only players to come out of last night with any sort of credibility were Thorsten Stuckmann, Paul Parry and Chris Holroyd. Brentford weren't the best team to come to Deepdale this season, but we made them look like Brazil and they didn't have to work hard for their goals. The third goal in particular was one of the worst goals I have seen us concede, a simple set piece routine where our defence fell completely asleep to give Donaldson a free header from two yards. Danny Devine was lucky not to have been sent off when he brought down their player when through on goal to concede a penalty which put Brentford 2-0 up and pretty much killed the game after 20 minutes. While we reduced the score with a Paul Parry penalty and almost scored beforehand when Chris Holroyd fired past the keeper but bounced off the post and away to safety as his luck continues to be against him but at least him and Parry (along with Stuckmann) were the only players trying to take the game to the opposition. 

It would be fair to say that out of the starting XI last night that Iain Hume and Paul Coutts were the most naturally gifted players in the team, however they actually had the worst performances. I can't remember any point where Hume had possesion and was often chasing thin air along with Cummins, but at least Cummins tried to make things happen but he really does need to improve on his strength if he is to make it at this level but a good pre season should improve that. Paul Coutts' form has dramatically dipped over the last few months and he is a shadow of the player that he can be and whether that's down to what's happened with Westley I do not know, but if he continues like this I would not be disappointed to see him sold in the summer. 

I think for the first time, Graham Westley lost the support of the fans last night as the full time reception was extremely hostile and the fans made their feelings clear about what they had just seen with many fans calling for him to be sacked, something which was reflected on sites such as Twitter and Facebook after the game. Personally I was extremely disappointed with what has happened in the last few months but I do not believe that another change of manager will help. It is obvious that Westley has to manage with effectively both hands tied behind is back as it is clear that the players don't want to play for him. (bad apples anyone?) I would still give him until Christmas as only over summer will we see if he can turn this club around as while we are only on 47 points, I think that even at the moment we have the capability to scrape a few points together and get over the 50 mark which would mean safety. It seems that Peter Ridsdale is prepared to give Westley time to turn things around and it is not a dissimilar comparison to Blackburn who persevered with Kean who was being hounded out by the fans, but he has slowly turned them around and they are now 6 points above the drop zone in the Premier League

On Saturday, Preston make the fairly short journey across the Pennines to play Sheffield Wednesday in the televised fixture which starts at 12:45. Wednesday recently sacked Gary Megson and brought in Dave Jones who has made a solid start and they have jumped Sheffield United to move into the automatic places despite being 7 points behind only a few weeks ago. Hillsborough is notorious for being a home banker, particularly this season and any smart money would be on a comfortable home win given the form that the two teams are in. However in the last Sky game Preston managed to win 1-0 at MK Dons in a game which everyone said the home time would win so anything can happen and a positive result for Preston on Gentry Day would release a lot of pressure on the beleaguered Westley.