https://www.fotmob.com/matches/preston-v...tab=lineup
Attendance: 10,379 (1,009 PNE fans).
Referee: James Linington.
Up at 4.30 am for this epic, do love Sky with their uncanny ability to reduce the level of sleep one gets, but count the dosh.
Highlight of the journey down seeing Deer at Norton Canes service station in the woodlands behind it.
The Kassam stdium built in the middle of nowhere soon to be turned into a retail establishment as they as thinking of moving home again, it's a delightful three sided ground with a great view of the car park from the away seats.
We took the points in what can be said to be an attritional game ad for the first time in 16 attempts managed to beat a side managed by Gary Rowett.
A slow pitch with a bobbly surface,, windy and a low sun didn't make for the easiest conditions to play in, against an Oxford side who play their own version of the beautiful game.
Started fairly well, looked the more likely, forced a series of corners, from one of them, Small receiving a clearence good cross to the back post, Storey heads home, delayed reaction as the ref didn't give it until he got the signal, having seen it the ball was miles over the line.
Then came the bombrdment, Vaulks long throw seemed to said every 30 seconds, all their corners were whipped in under the bar, Iversen had an interesting afternoon, looked uncertain when the ball was winging it's way in but shot shot stopping looked unbeatable.
Some goal mouths scrambles which we got away with and a good save by the Dane from a Brown header.
We had a three on one break at one time which we ballsed up. Led at the break.
Early second half effort by them, just wide and then probably the best bit of football from us all game, give and go betwee Devine and Dobbin inch perfect cross by Devine, Jebbo past kepper two up. Super goal.
Oxford reduced the arrears thanks to some hapless defending by us, ball given away, missed tackles and finally Armstong was megged by De Keersmaecker, who blitzed the ball in from the edge of the box.
Then it was back to Will Vaulks running to each side of the ground to launch missles into the box as with the first period caused us issues, a header clipped the top of the bar, and Iversen pulled off a TV save from a shot.
We did eventually get a bit of a grip of the game and eventually ran out winners
Third in the league, now for a blitz of games of Chrimbo.
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MACCERS
Stuart McCall described the 2-1 win against Oxford United as a “great victory”, at a stadium which he feels is a difficult place to have success.
The North End assistant manager spoke pre-match and warned that, despite Oxford sitting 21st in the table, they’d picked up some positive results on home turf against some of the division’s top sides.
PNE left the Kassam Stadium with all three points, though, with Jordan Storey and Daniel Jebbison getting on the scoresheet. Brian De Keersmaecker pulled one back for the hosts and pushed for a leveller, but Paul Heckingbottom’s men held on to take the points.
Stuart said: “I think it was a great victory. It was a patchy performance, but you come away from home and you take it. There's parts of it we could have done better, but there was good positivity.
“You only have to look at Oxford's home record against all the big boys. They beat Ipswich here a couple of weeks ago, deservedly so, and drew against Leicester, Middlesbrough and Coventry. It's a tough place to come so the result was fantastic.
“I'm really pleased with our first goal because we go on about Thierry [Small]. He puts a lot of crosses in the box, sometimes he gets in areas and he crosses it from the wrong area, other times he puts fantastic balls in and that's a really good deep one. We asked Jordan to get around the back which he did.
“But the second goal, and we said at half-time, I think we can play more football with the players we've got in our team. It’s a lovely worked goal. A nice one-two with Alfie [Devine] and Dobbs (Lewis Dobbin), a ball across the box, and Jebbo being where he should be in between the sticks and it's a great finish.”
PNE didn’t have much success on the road last season, winning three away matches in the league, and the Oxford victory takes the current campaign’s tally to four.
More than 1,000 North End supporters were in the away end to watch their side take the three points which took the team to third in the Championship table.
Stuart said: “It's always good when you see the supporters celebrating with the players at the end of it because we know especially at this time of year, getting up early and getting here [isn’t easy].
“Listen, that's what football is for. It's for the supporters. We didn't give them much to cheer about on our travels last season, so we're doing it a little bit better this year and long may it continue.”
Oxford manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford:
"I probably chose the wrong formation for a home game. I felt as if I wanted to keep a little bit of continuity. Looking at the first half I definitely got that wrong so I will take responsibility for that.
"They've had two shots on target and scored two goals. You don't have to be a genius to look at those goals and say, 'were they completely avoidable?'
"We keep shooting ourselves in the foot. In the second half I asked the players to play with a little more freedom, like we tend to do when a couple of goals down, and we were better.
"We did create opportunities - we've had 20 shots on goal, eight on target. If we score and get an equaliser we go on to win the game, but we can't wait until we are two goals down to start playing."
