The Tractors arrive at Deepdale as the ionly side to give us a real beating this season although at the time we were struggling defensively the East Anglian side won fairly easily after taking the lead just before half time and ran out 3-0 winners. We were so sort of players that even Nando's Vermijl ended up playing as a substitute. The visitors having lost at home to Colin's mob are safely mid table took a point from their local derby against them there Canaries on Sunday and are safely mid table but all is not well within the camp to be more precise the fan base, with Big Mick getting grief from sections of the home support which probably explains why he told them to Foxtrot Oscar when Town took the lead at Carrow Road. Always liked Big Mick as he says it how it is being a blunt Yorkshire speaking Yorkie from Barnsley. They have a decent squad and like us are not the biggest spenders in the Division but like us also do not get brilliant gates at home. Indeed former player Terry Butcher has stated that the chairman get his hands in his pockets and start spending more to improve the side. They did make two decent purchases in the summer both forwards from Rangers, Matty Waghorn who takes a mean dead ball and some lad called Joe Garner who scored a few for us a couple of seasons ago. Did watch the local game and good to see Joe still hitting the turf on a regular basis, didn't play last night against Cardiff due to injury, will he be back for Saturday? McGoldrick is likely to be out for the rest of the season after tearing a tendon in his groin. No great stars in the squad bit like us play as a team. Won't be easy never is against Big Mick's sides. Fisher suspended for two games for us expect Cunningham to plat right back and Earl to go left, otherwise stick with the lads that should have won at Villa Park. Time to start notching three points draws are now not required. Ref Watch: Ipswich Town please log in to view this image Referee Scott Duncan will be hoping for a bit more luck when he takes charge of his second North End home game of the season this Saturday. The Northumberland official was appointed to take charge of the last game before Christmas, at home to Nottingham Forest, but picked up an injury early in the game and was replaced by the fourth official. The was his second PNE appointment of the campaign, having been the man with the whistle for our goalless draw at Leeds United – our opening away game of the season back in August. His last ‘full’ North End game here in PR1 was the 3-0 home win over Reading in March of last year, which was his third PNE game of that season, having been referee for the EFL Cup win over Oldham Athletic at Deepdale and the defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in early December. The previous year he was the match official for the League Cup tie at Crewe Alexandra, which saw a 3-1 win for the Lilywhites and the year before that he took charge of the team twice, both at Deepdale, our 1-0 home win over Oldham back in August 2014 and the 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient in January. This is Scott’s sixth year on the EFL lists, having been appointed to the elite group in 2012/13, taking charge of his first PNE game in what proved to be Graham Westley’s final home game, against Shrewsbury Town. This is also his second Ipswich Town game of the season, having been the match official for their 1-0 away win at Derby County in November, one of his 28 games this season, where he has issued 78 cautions and sent off seven players, including Ben Pearson at Leeds. On Saturday he will be assisted by David Avent and Rob Merchant, whilst Scott Oldham is the fourth official. Stat Attack: Ipswich Town please log in to view this image Despite facing each other 11 times in the last 16 seasons, this is only the 16th league game here since Ipswich Town first made the long trip from Suffolk to Deepdale in December 1964. Our league history with the Tractor Boys falls into two distinct periods; after four consecutive seasons of league matches up to 1967, Ipswich didn’t play another league game here until 2002 as our two clubs went off in very different directions after Ipswich were promoted the old first division in 1968. Top flight football and European adventures for one club whilst the other fell on hard times that took many years to recover from but now both find themselves at the same level and competing on equal terms. When Ipswich inflicted our first defeat of the 2015/16 season, it was only their second ever victory here in the league, the first coming in 1966 on their second visit. In between those two defeats, we added six further wins to that initial victory along with five draws. Last season’s fixture ended all square after Jordan Hugill’s last minute equaliser cancelled out Tom Lawrence’s 16th minute goal for our visitors. That 4-1 scoreline in 1964 remains our biggest winning margin and we have only failed to score on two occasions, whilst we have kept five clean sheets. As well as league games, we have met twice here in FA Cup ties, beating our third division (south) opponents 6-1 in the fifth round 1954 in front of almost 35,000 fans. Positions were reversed when we lost 3-0 in 1978, with Ipswich the top flight club and North End putting up a stirring performance as a middle table second division side. Considering the 260 distance between our two clubs, a surprisingly large number of players have preceded Joe Garner in appearing for both clubs. Joe’s fellow strikers to have worn the colours of North End and Ipswich Town include Jon Macken, David Healy, Ricardo Fuller and Alex Mathie. Ben Pringle played ten games for Town on loan from former employers Fulham before his move to Deepdale in 2016 whilst Velice Shumulikowski is the only player to have moved directly from Suffolk to Preston. Richard Chaplow, Sean St. Ledger and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake have all featured for both clubs most recently. On This Date A couple of big home wins stand out in our league record on this date, with a 5-1 defeat of Southend United in 1976 and a 4-0 victory over Cardiff City in 1990. Southend made the long journey north from Essex for a Tuesday night third division fixture (some things never change) and went home empty handed after a brace each from John Smith and Mike Elwiss, with Ray Treacy our other scorer. Fourteen years later, it was a Steve Harper hat-trick (his second and third goals coming inside a minute) that saw off the Bluebirds in yet another heavy defeat here. Warren Joyce completed the scoring in front of a meagre 5,719 crowd for the third division fixture. Steve is as well remembered for his flowing locks as for his dribbling on the artificial pitch, having scored 11 goals in 89 appearances during his two years at Deepdale. John Thomas made his second debut for North End in that 1990 game, having returned to the club after a second spell with Bolton and then a period on West Bromwich Albion’s books. JT’s return to Deepdale failed to reach the heights of his first time here, when he scored 46 goals in 95 games, which included both the depths of re-election in 1986 and promotion the following season as John McGrath revitalised the club. After four goals in 16 games, he suffered a badly broken leg, ironically at Burnden Park and was out for a year. Sent off versus Exeter in his final game for North End, JT moved to Hartlepool soon afterwards, with a career record at Deepdale of 55 goals in 130 games, which included three hat-tricks – all in the 1986/87 season. Former centre half and manager David Moyes made the last of his 174 appearances for North End on this date in 1998 in a 0-3 home defeat to Carlisle United. This was his only appearance as player-manager, having taking over from Gary Peters in January after a period as player-coach. David was in charge for 234 games, winning 113, and took us to promotion in 2000 and the first division Play-Off Final before leaving in March 2002 and spending the next 11 years at Everton. He has of course since gone on to manage Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland before taking up his current post at West Ham United. Last Five Games At Deepdale Preston North End 1 (Hugill) Ipswich Town 1 (Lawrence), 28th January 2017 Preston North End 1 (Johnson) Ipswich Town 2 (Pitman, Fraser), 22nd August 2016 Preston North End 3 (Garner, 3) Ipswich Town 2 (Nouble, McGoldrick), 14th January 2014 Preston North End 1 (Hume) Ipswich Town 0, 11th December 2010 Preston North End 2 (Collins, Welbeck) Ipswich Town 0, 30th January 2010
Preston North End 0 Ipswich Town 1 Carayol PNE: Rudd, Woods (Earl 38), Huntington, Davies, Cunningham, Bodin (Horgan 67), Pearson, Browne, Barkhuizen, Robinson (Harrop 38), Moult. Subs (not used): Gallagher, Spurr, Welsh, Maxwell. Ipswich: Bialkowski, Carter-Vickers, Chambers, Webster, Iorfa, Skuse, Connolly, Carayol (Hyam 46), Knusden, Waghorn (Spence 90), Garner. (Sears 69) Subs (not used): Celina, Ward, Gleeson, Crowe. Referee: Scott Duncan (Northumberland) Attendance: 11,511 (474 away) An abysmal game of football with North End giving a performance of such ineptness that it was hard to believe it was the same team who should have taken six points from the last two games against Wolves and the Villa. Second best in every Department apart from keeper against an Ipswich side who were no great shakes, the tone was set early on Pearson missed a 50/50 Town broke with Carayol, he ran miles with it before forcing a save from Rudd the ball rebounded to him six yards out he missed the target. He wouldn't be denied for long, he got in down the left and sped easily away form defenders before slotting past Rudd. Town were then denied by hitting the bar and Waghorn was denied by a great Brown block. Just after the half hour Neil had seen enough off went Robinson and Woods, on came Harrop and Earl. We had a shed load of corners but never had anyone to get on the end of them. A niggly second half Town created nothing and we had two efforts from distance and a header from Barkhuizen which Bialkowski dealt with. Apart from the that the ball was propelled skywards on great regularity, players were offside in more than any game this season, it was cold and it was ****e. Put it down to experience, move on and regroup for Notlob.
Preston boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire: "I don't think we played anywhere near the levels we can. It was flat and we never really got going. "I think it's maybe down to how much we've demanded from the players and the last three games have taken a lot out of them. "I sent them in early from training yesterday because they looked flat and tired and I thought that continued into today. "The players wanted to play well today but they didn't have the energy." Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy told BBC Radio Suffolk: "I think that's the culmination of a really good week of performances. We got what we deserved today. "It's credit it to them that the players have adapted to the system we're playing and done well in it. "We should have had more goals and I could see them getting back into it but we defended really well. "We're not in for a chance of the top six as far as I'm concerned but that doesn't mean we'll stop fighting for it."
