A very spirited performance against arguably the best side we've played this season and it was a bit of a shame we only drew. Bull 8 Made a few good saves, including a very brave diving save and couldn't really do much about any of the goals Sandell5 Was skinned far too many times and hit very poor balls upfield, I think its an area we need strengthening Tunnicliffe 6 Looked a bit flat tonight, he should have won more headers and I thought he was at fault for their first Johnson7 Best player in our defence, nothing particularly got past him Foster 5 Same as Sandell, was made to look like a fool by Hume and had poor delivery throughout. Put Mccoy on. Lewis 7 Decent tackling, but a few balls wayward Rowlands 5 Looked very flat, perhaps not yet match fit as he didn't make an impression on the game Donnelly 8 He looked fairly sharp tonight, and created some decent chances Ainsworth 6 Quiet match but good goal Harris 9 Terrorised their defence, won a penalty, set up countless chances, and that piece of skill past 3 players was beautiful Beavon9 As always, works hard and creates chances, took his goal well Subs: Strevens 7 Decent cameo, was desperately unlucky not to score at the end Benyon5 Unbelievably ineffective
Agree with those ratings, thought grant should have replaced Ainsworth as he had the pace to scare them when beaver and redeem had run out of gas. We can still be proud of our performance and we made a good amount of noise tonight.
I'm surprised at your rating for Rowlands. I wasn't there but the chairboys player commentary was talking quite highly of him.
the only fault i will find tonight was gary waddocks subsitutions: bringing on strevens to play on the wing was a very poor choice when there is a far more capable winger in grant on the bench, why he didnt come on i dont know
Gutted with the result but delighted with the performance. Preston will count themselves fortunate to come away with a win, but that's what you get when you have 2 class strikers like Hume and Mellor. They take their chances and can win games on their own. What a brilliant game though, so many positives for us and there's much more optimisim around after the past 2 games. Especially in the crowd as the atmosphere and noise was fantastic again, even at 2-0 down there was very little of the usual moaning etc and the singing and clapping got going again soon after. Beavon and Harris ran the show for us with Donnelly very good in support. I have to disagree with theblues on Rowlands though. I thought he looked very good, used the ball well and got involved in the attacks. Add more match fitness and he looks a great signing. Ainsworth, unfortunately, is showing his age. Fully commited as ever but was too slow at times when the ball needed to be moved quicker. Still an asset for us and should still be used, but Grant and Harris should be the regular starters for now. Hume, Mellor and Proctor ran the defence ragged for most of the night. I don't think anyone was particularly bad, just that those front 3 were excellent. But conceding 2 goals when we had a corner needs to be addressed. Sandell is looking suspect at times too. There are too many balls coming into the box from wide areas and he can get turned easily with pace. I hope it's not a case of raising our game for the big boys, as if we play like that against teams in the bottom half then we will pick up the points from them.
I suspect Waddock thought it would make us more solid bringing on Strevens, but I agree with you, Grant would have been a better bet. Well as we played, I felt we needed the fourth goal, and their defence had struggled against pace all night. I think the marks for Lewis and Rowlands are a bit harsh. For me the midfield didn't do badly. Our biggest problem was coping with the movement and pace of Preston's attack.
Match ratings v PNE A very spirited performance against arguably the best side we've played this season and it was a bit of a shame we only drew. Did they carry on playing after the final whistle? We had definately lost when I left Adams Park on Tuesday night!
