Match Day Thread PNE v Birmingham City Deepdale 20/1/2018

A home game on a Saturday great news home at a sensible time, not spending hours on a coach etc, Birmingham City are this weeks visitors to the classiest stadium in the North West. the Blues need a win desperately next to the bottom and in serious danger of being relegated, form has picked up recently although last week were back to losing ways coming second to Derby County 3-0 at St Andrews which in a way may explain their present predicament. The Rams manager Gary Rowett had Birmingham challenging for promotion last season until he was rather surprisingly potted by the Chinese owners, in came Gianfranco Zola and down the table the Blues went and just before the end of the season with relegation looking a distinct possibility out went Zola and in came honest Harry Redknapp. Harry saved them with a last day win at Bristol City.
New dawn over the close season Harry bought most of Brentford's squad Dean and Jota costing a small fortune light touch paper and wait for the Blues to take off, didn't quite happen and when we rocked up and won 3-1 out went Harry and in came Steve Cotterill who if you cast your mind back lost his job at Bristol City after a home defeat against us.
The Blues problems this season have been caused by their inability to put the ball in the net, lowest scorers in the division. They've not been helped by injuries to Adams and Vassell but with relegation a possibility again they are fast running out of time to save their season. They are bringing a couple of thousand to the game hopefully they will not go home to happy.
Earl appears to be in th frame again following his injury, Moult close to fitness as well, selection problems of the happy variety for Neil. Need to improve our home form no better way to do that is hopefully win on Saturday.

Stat Attack: Birmingham City

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Although we first faced today’s opponents in 1894, it was not until 1948 that we played against Birmingham City.

This is because for our first eight meetings with the Bluenoses, they were then named Small Heath after the area of Birmingham in which they were formed in.

They became Birmingham in 1905 and did not add ‘City’ to their title until 1943, so it was not until 1949 that Birmingham City made their first visit to Deepdale.

In their various guises, this is the 42nd time the club have appeared here, but despite winning that first game 1-0, they have only won on four further occasions. We have recorded an amazing 25 wins and 12 draws, outscoring our visitors by 80 goals to 36.

There have only been four goalless matches and quite a few high-scoring results, none more so than our 8-0 win in 1958, which remains our third highest league win ever.
The last time we played Birmingham here before they added the ‘City’ to their title, we won 5-0 and we also had successive 4-1 wins in 1968 and 1969. We lost 3-2 in 1923 and our most recent loss was by 2-0 in 2001.

Andy Saville was our leading scorer in our 1996 Championship side with 30 goals, having joined from Birmingham City where he had spent three seasons. Andy played 66 times for North End and made one less appearance for the Blues, but made a lasting impression at both clubs.

Despite being a regular goalscorer for North End with 17 goals in 38 appearances, Eddy Brown left Deepdale in 1950 and after spells with Southampton and Coventry City, he ended up at St Andrews in 1954. Over the next five seasons, Eddy scored 90 goals for the Blues in only 185 games and after retiring following a spell in London with Leyton Orient, he returned to Preston as a teacher at the town’s Catholic College in Winckley Square.

on This Date
Recent Wigan Athletic manager and former North End midfielder Warren Joyce marks his 53rd birthday today, whilst two notable former players made the debuts on this date in previous years.

Warren signed for PNE from Bolton Wanderers in 1987, having followed his father Walter into professional football. An attacking midfielder, Warren occasionally played as a striker during his four and half years at Deepdale and scored 44 goals in his 210 appearances. He spent a season at Plymouth before returning to his native north west a year later when he signed for Burnley and finished his playing career at Hull City before taking up an equally successful coaching career.

Centre half Graham Hawkins played the first of his 269 games for North End in a 2-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers.
He spent six years at Deepdale, during which time he captained our third division championship winning side in 1970/71. Graham later moved to Blackburn before returning to his original hometown club Wolves, first as manager and later as chairman.

Teuvo ‘Tepi’ Moilanen donned the gloves for the first time as a North End player in a goalless draw at Lincoln City in 1996, where his team-mates included Andy Saville. Amongst that season’s promotion side. He is now back in Finland working in education in Tampere, where he previously played for FC Ilves.

Last Five Games At Deepdale
Preston North End 2 (Robinson, Hugill) Birmingham City 1 (Adams), 14th February 2017
Preston North End 1 (Reach) Birmingham City 1 (Morrison), 15th December 2015
Preston North End 1 (Parkin) Birmingham City 0, 13th December 2008
Preston North End 1 (Whaley) Birmingham City 0, 6th May 2007
Preston North End 1 (Purse, og) Birmingham City 0, 2nd March 2002

Ref Watch: Birmingham City

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This weekend we have an official who will be taking charge of his first ever game at Deepdale, in Hampshire referee Andy Davies.

This will be his first game of 2017/18 where he has officiated either PNE or visitors Birmingham City, having refereed 15 games, issuing 56 cautions and one red card so far in the current campaign; his last match being last weekend’s 2-0 home win by Brentford against Bolton Wanderers.

Whilst this is his first game as Deepdale, the match official has taken charge of North End games in the past, including the opening game of the 2016/17 at Reading.

This is his sixth year on the EFL lists, but only his fourth ever PNE game. He took charge of 2015/16s goalless draw at Brighton & Hove Albion back in October 2015, having previously been the match official for a Lilywhites fixture back in 2012 at Leyton Orient.

He will be assisted by Jonathan Hunt and Billy Smallwood, whilst the fourth official will be experienced select group two referee Andy Madley.

 

Preston North End 1 (Davies) Birmingham City 1(Gallagher

PNE: Maxwell, Clarke, Huntington, Davies (Earl 46), Cunningham, Gallagher, Johnson, Barkhuizen, Harrop, Robinson (Moult 69). Hugill (Browne 57)). Subs (not used): Horgan, Welsh, Moult, Bodin, Rudd.

Birmingham: Stockdale, Colin, Roberts, Deam, Grounds, Kiefenbeld, Ndoye, Davis, Boga (Adams 86), Maghoma, Gallager.
Subs (not used): Jutkiewicz, Bramall, Jenkinson, Jota, Morrison, Trueman.
Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire)
Attendance: 13,529 (2,201 away)

City will probably think they dropped two points, they did, they wanted it more than North End who put in a performance that was truly awful, far too many were not on their game today against a side who were scrapping to get away from the bottom of the league.
Twice in the first ten minutes Gallagher should have scored for City, one effort defelected wide for a corner and the other missed a simple header from close range. Slightly against the run of play North End took the lead, some shocking City defending left Davies with the simple task of tapping in from a couple of yards after a defensive header across the face of the six yard box.
The goal settled us down and we started to play better but rarely looked like scoring and the speedy City forwards causing us problems on the break, Ndoye missed a good chance from about 1 yards following a break by Maghoma.
Second half never really got started and let in a goal which was probably worse than the defensive calamity for City's goal. Having got into a good position North End passed it back until it arrived at the feet of Maxwell, his pass dropped Huntington in the crap with two City forwards within yards of him, Huntington lost the ball, Maxwell charged out of goal, missed the ball and Gallagher had the simple task of slotting home from 18 yards, no more than they deserved.
City sussed they could win this one as North End started to panic, no tackle was won in midfield passes went astray only surprise was that City did not take advantage of it. Apart from a couple of Alan Browne efforts near the end we never got close to scoring again and managed to scrape a point we barely deserved.

 

Preston manager Alex Neil:

"I thought individually and collectively that's the poorest we've been since I've been at the club. So that's really disappointing.

"We didn't deserve anything from the game so the only bonus we can take is that we've got a point.

"I thought we were flowery and soft, they did the fundamentals very well but we were lacking that today. Performance-wise was really poor."

Birmingham City boss Steve Cotterill told BBC WM:

"We'll be going home disappointed tonight because we think our performance merited the win today.

"We could have gone two goals up before they scored.

"We've been playing well for a little while now. This isn't a coincidence - this is starting to be a good, consistent team."

 

Missing Pearson? Need a similar back-up and a creative midfielder with Gallagher running out of steam? NE are constrained in investing because of having low attendances resulting So, even if TH in constraints from the fair play rules. So, even if TH wanted to pour money into the club, and it does not look as though he does, he cannot. However, TH's financial wisdom does seem to be working although slowly. Commentators are expressing admiration on NE's progress with a squad worth only £2m! Moult made his debut and Earl is back. Maybe, with the high energy style of play at the beginning of the season and with players like Cunningham and Earl and Davies and Woods needing game time, the squad is off the boil? Having a kamikazi goalie like Maxwell doesn't help! FA Cup against SU may give a chance for the squad to revv up a bit without affecting their primary aim - play-offs.