Match Day Thread Preston North End v Birmingham City Deepdale 15/1/2022

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LAST TIME OUT

FORM GUIDE

PNE 14 BRUM 4

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PNE Team News

Tom Barkhuizen and Matthew Olosunde, who missed the weekend’s defeat to Cardiff City, are fit and training ahead of this game.

Midfielder Josh Harrop made his first appearance for PNE in over a year on Sunday, coming off the bench to play over 40 minutes, and he will be hoping to be part of the matchday squad again against Birmingham.

Ryan Lowe also confirmed pre-match that long-term absentee Izzy Brown is not expected to be back fit and available this season.

The Opposition

Birmingham City currently sit 18th in the Championship table, four points below PNE and eight above the relegation places.

In the dugout for Blues will be head coach Lee Bowyer, in his first full season in that role, having taken over in March 2021 and enjoying a positive end to the campaign.

His side have been hit with a few recent blows personnel wise, having lost goalkeeper Matija Sarkic through injury and Riley McGree to parent club Charlotte FC, while defender Teden Mengi has been brought in on loan from Manchester United.

Key Stats

Birmingham City are going through a difficult spell of late, having won just once in their last eight Championship games, picking up just five points in that period.

Striker Scott Hogan is Blues’ top scorer so far this campaign with six goals. The Irish forward netted a hat-trick against PNE in 2016, but hasn’t scored against the Lilywhites in his last seven meetings with North End.

Recent history suggests games between these two don’t tend to involve too many goals, with five of the last seven meetings ending in wins-to-nil.

Our Last Meeting





PNE had to settle for a point against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s back in September 2021.

Troy Deeney hit the woodwork in the game’s early stages, while North End’s best chances fell to Sean Maguire and Josh Earl in the first half.

Man In The Middle

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Andy Davies will take the whistle on Saturday afternoon, refereeing a PNE match for the second time this season. His previous game was the 1-1 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion in September.

Davies has taken charge of 21 matches so far this term, showing 55 yellow cards in that time and one red.

The referee will be assisted by James Wilson and Richard Wild, while Martin Coy will be on fourth official duties.

MACS VIEW

A month since we were at home missed out on the Boxing Day game again due to our Covid issues which was a massive own goal in terms of players responsibility given there was a danger we could have gone behind closed doors at the time.
Hopefully the game will be better than the dire game at St Andrews. Last week at Cardiff showed without certain players there is not a lot to push the first team. A month in Lowe should be aware of what is needed 19 points to avoid relegation time to beat a side below us

 

One all.

 

Preston North End 1 Bauer Birmingam City 1 Hogan


PNE line-up: Iversen; van den Berg, Bauer, Hughes; Potts (Barkhuizen, 71), Whiteman, Browne, Johnson, Cunningham; Evans (Sinclair, 87), Riis (Maguire, 71). Subs not used: Ripley, Lindsay, McCann, Rafferty.

Birmingham City line-up: Etheridge; Mengi, Roberts, Pedersen; Colin, Gardner, James, Sunjic (Woods, 82), Bela (Bellingham, 83); Jutkiewicz, Hernandez (Hogan, 83). Subs not used: Trueman, Walker, Masampu, Campbell.

Attendance: 12,821 (1,994 away fans).

Referee: Mr A Davies.

I am not sure whether we did really enough to win this game, we took a point but could so easily have ended up with nothing at the end. Work in progress some of the old faults still there, poor final ball and the usual ability to sit deep and invite pressure when one up as we did today. Have to say the three substitutions made little impact although Barkhuizen got into some good position, however City's substitutes did as one of them scored
Compared to the game at St Andrews at times this was a very open game we create the better chances denied by some stubborn Birmingham defending City offered little up front apart from new loan signing Hernadez who was a constant danger until substituted just before the end.
Browne unlucky from about 40 yards when Etheridge headed clear 25 yards from goal, the North End's skipper effort just wide on a empty goal.
Took a deserved lead ball cleared to Browne at the edge of the box not the most powerful of shots took a nick of Bauer and in it went, Ethridge wrong footed.
Deservedly in front at half time City started the second half on top, James influence began to increase as the game wore on looks a useful player, could have equalised very early on in the second half but his goal bound shot was deflected wide by Whiteman. A bit tetchy in the second period Evans probably lucky not to get booked in the first half engaged in a great battle Mengi like the game that ended a draw.
We had chances to kill them off but let down on several times by a poor final ball. As the game drew to a close we got deeper and deeper and five minutes from time Hogan dived to head the ball home to be fair they probably deserved for the second half performance, they nearly won it at the death a corner by passed everyone look to be going directly into the net two home players more by luck managed to clear the ball.
Johnson and Whiteman excellent, Browne played well, Evans put in a mighty shift. Cunningham gets into better positions than Earl does when going forward. Riis needs a goal just not going for him at the moment and Potts had a quietly effective game

Birmingham manager Lee Bowyer told BBC Radio WM:

"I have to give the players full credit for keeping going and pushing to the end like that. We could have nicked it in the end.

"We dug deep and kept pushing and fighting. I'll keep fighting and pushing these players and they'll keep fighting for the club and that's what they've just done.

"I thought from the second half we looked the most likely to score. They hit us on the break a couple of times which was obviously going to happen because we we pushing for the equaliser.

"I'm really pleased because Scotty [Hogan] has had a tough week with some personal things going on away from the game so I'm glad he got the goal."

 

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