The chicken farmers arrive for the first time in about 10 years since a Dean Barrick goal beat them 1-0 in the second leg of a League Cup tie, sadly North End lost the first leg 6-0 but that is a minor details. They arrive having changed manager now with Paul Lambert at helm replacing in my view a very unlucky Gary Bowyer who in my view did a good job stabilising the Plastics in very difficult circumstances. They are a place above us in the league so a close game is expected. Personal view is that they have some really useful players, Rhodes up top, Lawrence, Conway and Marshall, plus the gigantic central defenders Duffy and Hanley. Will be a tough ask for our non scoring forwards expect a single goal to decide this one otherwise it could be another shut out at either end. No news on how the likes of Beckford, Clarke are progressing with their injuries as the club seem to be reluctant to let the information out into the public domain. The Plastics have been given over 5000 tickets and have apparently sold them all. This match is massive going back 20 years Uncle Jack started to spend money as if it was going out of fashion at Sheepwood Park, living in area where support was split 50/50 it was annoying to see the part time North Enders suddenly become glory hunters at the Sheepwood. Then they won the League and boy did they enjoy telling us, still think they only won the league due to Cantona going AWOL at Crystal Palace. Got some light relief with Le Sox and Batty socking seven bells out of each other in a European match. But they have piled up the misery for North Enders, however times change they are in debt have a transfer embargo and so now have to play us. However my biggest gripe about Blackburn is my parents decided I should be born there, utterly disgraceful, this is the one I want to win, dislike the place with a passion.
A game which North End did not do enough to win and certainly did not deserve to lose against the Plastics whose goals came from a scabby own goal and a penalty. A crowd of just shy of 20,000 saw a tightly contested game in which North End's final ball often let them down, the delivery of dead balls was dreadful with Gallagher having one of his least effective games although his ability to find the red shirt of his opponents was unsurpassed all afternoon. Little in the early stages of play although North End were slightly the better side, a couple of corners for the Plastics went wide. Reach was having a field day against the full back however as is usual the ball tended to go down the other wing were we were less effective. Towards the mid point the game started to get stretched and they looked like a decent counter attacking side. The Plastics took the lead in slightly odd circumstances a shot hit the post the follow up shot was cleared off the line by Huntington however the clearance hit keeper Pickford and rebounded into the net. North End looked for an equaliser should have had when Reach in a good position he could have shot, could have passed did neither and the chance was lost. On the stroke of half time a Johnson free kick was narrowly wide. North End could have been level right at the start of the second half when Browne chased down a lost cause, put the ball into a scoring position except no White shirt was there to score. Within five minutes of that North End were two down and looking down the barrel. It was slightly self inflicted, a short corner was completely messed up and following several phases of play the ball arrived at Taylor's feet he advanced into the box and was brought down, Dean pointed to the spot, the largely anonymous Rhodes beat Pickford with power after the keeper went the right way. For the next five minutes or so North End were all over the place and were hanging on to the now confident Plastics. A double substitutions changed the game back towards North End, May and Keane came on and May immediately had a shot at goal, the shot was blocked but the ball ran to Garner who blasted home his first goal of the season. Game on as the massed ranks of Red shirts kept the home side away form the goal, have to say Henley at the back is a tremendous player but saying that web made it easy for him at times. North End were reduced to ten as Wright got a second yellow card for stopping a Plastic break away, his second sending off this season, then deep in injury time Mr Dean was suddenly rendered blind, Reach was shoved in the back in the area went down, nothing given and with that went the points. Apparently the Plastics think they are going up this season, DREAM ON BOYS you're not. Preston North End 1 Blackburn Rovers 2 Att 19852 Preston North End manager Simon Grayson: "I think we deserved something. When you look back over the course of the game probably the least we deserved was a point. It was a typical derby match, a lot of tackles and things bobbling around. We felt we had to up the tempo in the second half and we responded really well. "I think we had Blackburn camped in their own half for much of the game and we just needed a little bit of extra quality that we just didn't have. "We were sloppy for the goal giving away the penalty. Garner's goal lifted us, the place got rocking, we were on the front foot but ultimately we couldn't find that equaliser which we deserved. "Overall I thought we defended quite well again but we conceded a freak goal and a penalty so we didn't really look like we were going to concede in open play." Blackburn Rovers manager Paul Lambert: "It was strange being back. After nine months out, for the first time in 40 years I was enjoying my life. Then you are back in the hot seat - the highs and lows - but it's great to be back. "We played a terrific game of football. The atmosphere was great in the stadium and we scored two goals against a team that hadn't conceded in six games. The team deserves so much credit for that and I think we looked a threat every time we went forward. "I've asked the players to do a lot for me. We've trained a bit differently, which is no slight on Gary (Bowyer) at all, but I have my own way of training, everyone does, and the players have worked ever so hard to master that and it will take time.
