A 10 day break for the Whites following last Saturday's defeat against Brentford will hopefully have recharged the batteries of the team in readiness for a tough set of fixtures coming up. First up a Tuesday night fixture against a stuttering Derby side who actually lost to Manchester United in the cup on Friday night(Who does lose to United these days?) before then they had crashed at Burnley 4-1 after playing well in the first 30 minutes before giving two own goals and two penalties away. Although their form has dipped they are still a decent side however they fell away last season as well is history going to repeat itself. They have paid a lot of money for players this season, they have left Russell out of the side in recent games, he destroyed us a Deepdale, Hendricks rarely starts as well. Johnson and Butterfield in midfield are as good as anybody in this league but results are not coming at the moment. Possibly an ideal time to play them, will assume Lindegaard will start, no official announcement whether Johnstone has gone, but assume he has. We need to be a bit more clinical in front of goal, personally would leave Garner out at the moment as he tends to spend more time rolling around the ground in agony instead of concentrating on the game. Do well to get anything on Tuesday mind you only visit to the stadium before we won 2-0, will be there on Tuesday.
Thought Derby played decently against MU. Some smooth football but went down to some good play by Martial and Rooney. MKD were awful against Chelsea. Deserve to be near the relegation zone. NE will have to play well at the Ipro, but they do against the top teams.
When you pay out big money for a pot on getting to the big league and the riches it contains, not having a shot on target during the 96 minutes of play must be a concern to the management, layers and supporters, but less of Derby's concerns this was an excellent point earned by North End last night at the iPro stadium which I must add is a fantastic ground. North End gave a debut to new keeper Lindegaard although there was no sign of his well endowed girlfriend in the away end giving support to the lads!!!. A very nervous start by North End, which could have left the game well out of reach within five minutes, Hendrick firing narrowly wide in the first 30 seconds, plus several corner and a misdirected clearance by Lindegaard which hit Ince and luckily went out of play. Derby dominated possession however whenever we got the ball we looked dangerous Gallagher testing Carson from distance. Derby to give them credit pass the ball about well, however it is just a bit to slow and we funnelled back and made it hard for them to get through. Ince was a danger but he is as one footed as they come and being ex Blackpool got tons of abuse last night. Thorne is the player that I rate he makes them play but they seemed to run out of ideas, as was noticed by the home support as they began to get restless especially when another Gallagher effort was tipped over the bar by Carson. North End looked comfortable but had a dangerous habit of giving the ball away especially in and around the penalty area. The second half was of similar nature as the Rams dominated the ball, Lindegaard saw more action but mainly dealing with balls in the from the flanks, he was also helped by the back three of Clarke, Huntington and Wright who were excellent. It was not one way though Cunningham got into the box and his run was stopped by a brave save by Carson and Reach had a goalbound effort blocked, a few narrow squeaks at the end but we got what we came for a point. Some top class banter between the fans most of it unrepeatable, but the "Is this a fire drill chant" 10 minutes from the end when the home fans were leaving in droves was a classic. Derby County 0 Preston North End 0 Att 27200 Derby head coach Paul Clement: "Of course I am concerned about the run. I would be silly to say I wasn't, but I still have the belief that a victory is not far away. "The message I gave to the players is that we've got to keep going. "They gave all their effort and we've got to keep working hard on the training field, keep positive and keep the belief within us. "There's a long way to go and we've actually gone up a place." Preston manager Simon Grayson: "This is a difficult place to come because they have some good players. "Our players stuck to the game plan we spent four or five days working on and the effort the lads put in was unbelievable. "Our keeper has not had a shot to save, whereas theirs has had a few and we created a couple of good chances."
