Match Day Thread Norwich City Deepdale 20/12/2025 12.30 pm

For the second week in succession we start at the ungodly time of 12.30pm, suspect any visitors travelling by coach will set their alarms for a truly great time of 3am to give them ample time to crawl out of bed and still realise it's the middle of the night, good news is at 3.03pm on the 21st is the furthest the earth's axis will be from the sun, from then on in it's downhill to summer.
City not having the best summer although seem to be starting to improve under Phil the man from Belgium, certainly won't be in the drop zone by May although by no means an easy task to get away from that line above 22nd.


MANAGER

Philippe Clement (born 22 March 1974) is a Belgian professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of EFL Championship club Norwich City.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Clement#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a>

He began his professional career at Belgian clubs Beerschot and Genk between 1992 and 1998, thereafter he joined Coventry City in England for one season. Clement then returned to his homeland and spent ten seasons at Club Brugge, between 1999 and 2009, making over 300 appearances. At international level, Clement won 38 caps for the Belgium national team between 1998 and 2007 and scored one goal.

As a manager, Clement led Genk and Club Brugge to Belgian Pro League titles over three consecutive seasons. Abroad, he managed Monaco in Ligue 1 and Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, winning a Scottish League Cup.



Always like the waY backroom staff always have their initials on their clothing, easy to remember who you are then.

HOT SHOTS AND NEWBIES



FORM GUIDE

PNE 14 NORWICH 9

Team News​

A number of players who have recently returned from injury or who are still on their way back, the likes of Ali McCann, Andrija Vukčević and Will Keane, all took part in a training match earlier this week.

Liam Lindsay will return to contention after serving his one-match suspension, while Brad Potts will be hoping for his first minutes since March on Saturday, after being an unused substitute for the last two matches.

Jamal Lewis, Milutin Osmajić and Robbie Brady remain unavailable.

The Visitors​

Following a summer of change, with Liam Manning being appointed as head coach and a plethora of new faces added to the squad, things didn’t get off to the start that Norwich City would have wanted.

The Canaries went 12 matches between September and November without a victory and found themselves in the bottom three, leading to the dismissal of Manning as boss and the appointment of Philippe Clement.

Norwich have picked up some impressive results under the two-time Belgian Pro League winning manager, including victories over Queens Park Rangers and Southampton, and he’ll be hoping his side can come up with the goods again at Deepdale this weekend.

Match Officials​

Referee: Stephen Martin
Assistant Referees: Hugh Gilroy and Hristo Karaivanov
Fourth Official: Simon Mather

Stephen Martin will take charge of Saturday’s fixture.

Martin officiated North End’s draw against Millwall earlier in the campaign and is vastly experienced in the EFL, having first refereed PNE back in 2013.

So far this season, he has shown 55 yellow cards in 12 matches.

https://www.fotmob.com/matches/preston-v...tab=lineup
Attendance: 14,831 (878 Norwich City fans).

Referee: Stephen Martin.

On the morning of the game Jebbison went down with a sickness bug and the latter spotted Keane was drafted into the match day squad rumours have it that he is destined for elsewhere in the window and as such although fit hasn't played a single minute in a game since his return from injury until today. If it is his swan song his goal in the 95th minute to get us a point is a good point to say goodbye.
Traling to a goal five minutes from time by the promising Makama, City took the ball to do the usual game management ti see out didn't quite go to plan, lost the ball Offiah from the area unchallenged up to the halfway, ball to Mads, cut the ball onto his left foot crossed Keane dummied the ball to Smith ball to Mc Cann out to Vukceevic, dinked cross, Potts header, Keane wins next header gooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllll. Actually is a decent goal and gave the score in my view the correct result..
Not a pretty game on the Deepdale mud flats, at times ppretty soporific.
A first have apart from a couple of Small efforts plus a shot by Dobbin which deflected narrowly wide, it was given as a goal kick. Don't recall Iversen having a save to make, we had the ball in the net, the less than certain Kavacevic, seemed to drop the ball, Storey fired home foul given.
Second period Smith header and a Hughes effort from 30 plus yards caused any issues for City, they began to press forward more looking to sneak a late winner, which they looked to have done as Makama slammed home his right footed shot although it looked like he was trying to pull Storeys shirt from his back at the same time.
Finally Mr Martin did OKish for 70 minutes before losing the plot.
36 points sixth in the leagueat Christmas not bad for apparently a side destined for relegation.
As for City they are not a bottom of the league side but, a gap is appearing at the nether regions of the table

Maccers

Stuart McCall was delighted for last-gasp goalscorer Will Keane who earned PNE a point at home to Norwich City, admitting that the striker wasn’t initially supposed to be part of the matchday squad.

Keano, who made his last appearance for North End back in April, was due to train at Euxton earlier in the day, however earned a call-up to the squad because of a bout of illness which ruled out Daniel Jebbison.

The forward came on in the second half and headed home in the sixth minute of stoppage-time to seal a point against the Canaries, after they thought they’d snatched it in the 85th minute.

Stuart said: “I’m delighted for him and for Pottsy (Brad Potts), who's been out a long, long time to play a big part in the goal, but that's what Pottsy does. Pottsy gets in the box, whether it's at wing-back or midfield. He’ll always be in the box and he'll be always having a go or creating a chance.

“As I say with Keano, we just wanted him to play as an out-and-out centre forward, not be a ten. Just stay up and give Smudge (Michael Smith) a little bit of support and I think it was just the number of bodies we had in there [that led to the goal].

“I’m delighted because it's really difficult for them lads when they're coming in training and they're just running on their own and it's mentally tough for them so I was delighted for Keano to get the goal.

“I said this morning he'll probably come on and get the winner. It wasn’t the winner but it felt like it at the time, and then obviously Pottsy as well so I’m delighted for everyone but especially the two lads that have been out for so long.”

Before the deadlock was broken by Jovon Makama in the 85th minute, there was little for either goalkeeper to do in truth, with Thierry Small coming closest for the Lilywhites.

Keane was the late, late hero as he rescued a point which North End’s assistant manager feels is the least his side deserved.

Stuart said: “It wasn't a game we deserved to lose that's for sure. We weren't at our best. It's very difficult on a really problematic surface I've got to say, but we kept going and I think that's one thing you can say about this group.

“It’s great emotions when you come back like that. As I said, no team threatened the goal that much really. I think it was a lot of midfield play, a bit scrappy at times but a fully deserved point.”

Phil

Norwich manager Philippe Clement told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"Coming here against Preston, third in the league and a hard place to come, and showing this on the pitch, for 90 minutes with good organisation and good moments on the ball, and a really good goal makes it hard to lose two important points in the dying seconds.

"But [in terms of] mentality, I can't say anything against my team, it was a really good performance.

"Vlad [Kovacevic] didn't have to make many saves and was really good in a few moments with high crosses and coming to help the defence.

"In the last action, I think we can do better with a few players and can keep the ball better in front, like we did against Southampton, but it's really unlucky that we lost these two points."