MK Dons @ Deepdale 7/4/2012

[themaclad]

It's a special occasion at Deepdale on Saturday it's Sir Tom Finney's 90 th birthday(It's actually tomorrow Thursday). They are going to be special events on the day with speeches from Fergie and Beckham to be played over the big screen at the ground.
They are also doing up the glass front of the Sir Tom Finney stand,.

Sadly the opponents on Saturday have no such pedigree even though they are above us in the league. IMV they should have had to work their way through the leagues starting at the bottom of non league.
Instead they were taken from a loyal bunch of fans and plonked in a town north of London.
They have plans to increase their capacity at Franchise stadium to 30000 which seems a bit laughable seeing a recent game against Bury pulled in just over 6000.
There is a certain irony in the team that they leeched has managed to climb up 9 rungs of the league ladder whilst the Dons seem to be static in this league.
Enough of the rant.
Maybe just maybe last weekend and the subsequent fallout may be the watershed and both players and management realize they have made mistakes.
Suspect we'll have a different centre forward as Brown dislocated his shoulder last week.
What I do expect is a team playing for the club and especially a 90 year old legend.

 

[themaclad]

For once the club deserves a bit of credit the celebration to say happy 90 th birthday to Sir Tom Finney were spot on and almost the 11 on the pitch nearly did the business.
The players did not let the club down they battled and got a merited point in the 1-1 draw with MK Dons, even the classical singer Camilla Kerslake provided quality singer and looks to boot(well she did from 75 yards away)
Preston probably played better in the first 45 minutes than they have in many a game recently. They started brightly with the lively Holryod going close with two efforts, this raised the spirits of the home support in the 14000 gate. MK Dons passed the ball around neatly with Luke Chadwick and England international Alan Smith looking dangerous.
It was against the run of play when the Dons took the lead, a swift moved down the right led to a canny dummy by Smith which enabled Potter to ghost into acres of space and easily chip Stuckmann into the net. (0-1)
Far from being despondent North End battled back and were denied an equaliser by the crossbar Holroyd's header hitting it.
Half time a group of players from the past were invited onto the field, strange quite a few of them appear to have piled on the wight in the recent years but then again so have I.
The second half reverted to the norm for Deepdale with very little action, apart from a rsping shot from the Dons o'Shea, North End were slightly unluckily when Holroyd was unable to control the ball with only the keeper to beat.
The game drifted towards the end until Preston brought on substitue with about 6 minutes to go. Big Chuks didn't do any thing special but got stuck in and this raised trhe team and the crowd.
Ibhere had a chance to seal the game for the Dons but missed a very scoreable chance.
Close to the end North End were awarded a free kick. Giant Preston keeper Stuckmann was in the Dons area and his presence seem to confuse the Dons players, from Mayor's kick young defender Bailey Wright stole in to head the equaliser. (1-1)
Momentum was with the home side however they could not get the winner in the 4 minutes of injury time.
A big point for the home side as they get ever closer to safety.

Preston North End 1 MK Dons 1 Att 13960