The Gaffer reported that tere are no hangovers from last night's London Awards ceremony so that's all right. We will of course be missing Lucas Piazon and Thanos Petsos is still out with a calf injury. Unfortunately Jokanovic reckons that Ayite will also miss the next two games. Preston have central midfielder Ben Pearson back after missing last weekend's 2-1 win over QPR. However none of their three right backs are fit so as a makeshift will have to keep going with LB Greg Cunningham in that position. Their big threat though is, fairly obviously, Aidan McGready and somehow we've got to stop him getting the ball. For us, main striker is still an issue. Some rumours around that Chris Martin will be given another chance but I'm going to cut straight the chase and say we'll start with - ....................Button...... ..Odoi...Kalas....Ream...Sessegnon.. .................McDonald.. ..Fredericks..Cairney..Johansen...Aluko .....................Cyriac...
Th man in charge today is Simon Hooper. The 32 year Hooper is generally 'Mr Steady' when it comes to cards. Last season in his 42 games he handed out 100 yellows and 2 reds. This year so far he's exceeded himself a tad, something that most of our refs seems to do immediately after joining the full time cabal, which he did last summer. His 33 games have seen 121 yellows and 2 reds. Mind some of the accumlation of yellows are down to the two Aston Villa games he's done when he managed a total of 18. We've only had his pleasure once. The very first game of the season when we beat Necastle 1-0 at the Cottage. He booked 4 that night; 3 of theirs and Denis Odoi - probably for taking the wee wee with that Newcastle defender.
Martin took his goal very well and had a couple of nice flicked headers in the second half that put our one of ours through. Otherwise? No, nothing really and with the ball at his feet he looked quite cloggy. Nonetheless, with him there on the pitch he occupied people and in a reverse kind of logic contributed a fair bit to our dominant possession. Back to the real stuff though. There no doubt who lorded it over the gentry today - some of our play was sensational. Of course there were occasions when we missed out making a quick forward pass to someone running into space and of course many crosses/balls into the final third could have been better. And yes, more/better shots would be welcomed. But as someone said, "perfectionism kills art". And there were a few decent artists on the pitch today - Cairney ruled the roost , Sessegnon and Kebano completely skinned their makeshift left back and Aluko soared everywhere. Enough! Suffice to say we were very, very good against a side within one point of us at the top end of the table. One point that is, before the kick off. PS Good to see that the Gaffer's thinking on corners was the same as the fan's. None at all of the 9 we had today were taken by Johansen.
It seems to me that this is a good result - PNE are a good side and on a bit of a run. Every season it seems that a side comes on a late run into the playoffs - and I think this year it could well be us. Previously at 1-1 we would have ended up loosing a late goal or hanging on for a draw - but today we pushed on and won well. I know it is not very Fulhamish to be optimistic - but who knows?
One of my rare visits this season,but i must say we looked rather classy,pity about some of the blips
Apart from a short spell after their goal we controlled the game start to finish. I expected PNE to press us harder but it was quite comfortable in the end. Their goalie was good and kept the score down. Real team performance which was a pleasure to watch. Good day today, really enjoyed it. Full credit to the Preston fans, they seemed to be having a great day out before the game and were real gents. So nice to see. They were all a bit dejected at the end but I think they probably still had a good day out.
Some thoughts from yesterday: - I love Kebano's passion. He won the ball back several times and was driving us forward. Not sure what happened with him at ACON, but the new Kebano is looking like the player we were told about when he signed. - A real captain's performance from McDonald. He was at the heart of everything, taking the game by the scruff of the neck. He was hugging Martin for about a minute after his goal; if anyone can turn Martin's head back, it's McDonald. - The referee really seemed to want to keep his cards in his pocket. There were several times that Preston could/should have had a player booked, plus the obligatory Johansen swipe. I'm all for letting the game flow, but I am not a big fan of watching Cairney get clattered. - Sessegnon looks so good going forward, but really looks his age defensively. Several times he sold Ream down the river by getting caught up the pitch. He will be a star, but Sessegnon is not a great defender yet. - I believe Ayite is out for a few games and sadly we looked better without him. Whatever happened to Kebano at ACON, the opposite happened to Ayite. He needs to get his mojo back; I think he will be valuable in the run-in. - Martin was hesitant to shoot, no doubt due to fear of heckling if he wasted an opportunity. He forced a few passes when he should have gone for goal, but he improved as the game went on. He certainly didn't seem like a player who had irrecoverably damaged his relationship with his teammates. We're definitely better with him on the pitch. - Cairney and Johansen weren't at their best and it's nice to know others (Kebano, McDonald, Aluko) will step up when we need them. All in all, we deserved the points yesterday without a doubt. Bring on the most important game of the season to date: Leeds on Tuesday night. EDIT: Also, what was with the green smoke from Preston? Only blight on the game, really.
Smoke bomb I assume we have a few plonkers who like them, forgot to add playing Led Zep in the run up to the game get in.
It's always a shame, but every club has it's plonkers. I had a fun time at the Crabtree before the game and had no problems whatsoever with the travelling fans. I'm not sorry that your trip was wasted though.
I thought the Ref was one of the better ones we've had this season, not to much fuss, kept control of two teams trying to play football. Let's hope we have a similar Ref for Leeds. Apart from their keeper, McGeady was probably their best player, but I think their number 25 was falling down all the time trying to get freekicks, Ref did well, gave a few but left him lying on the ground waving play on other occassions. Think some times we forget that Sessegnon is only 16 and doesn't have the strength just yet, but I still think get battles well for the ball. I'm guessing Malone will be in against Leeds. I think C58 is right Martin didn't get many chances but his presence gives space to others. Still don't think we should buy him, need a taller faster version. We need to find someone who can take decent corners. Saw a few Preston lads with proper Bowler Hats looked good but the plastic ones looked like Butlins by the Sea type All it will take is someone to die from an asthma attack from the smoke bombs, remember Liverpool let of many and some of their own supporters ended in Charring Cross Hospital with respiratory problems. We've had some young idiots at away games letting them off too.
