Match Day Thread Preston North End v Leeds United Deepdale 9/4/2019

Almost a year to the day Leeds arrive at Deepdale, last season we won 3-1 against a Leeds side which had nothing to play for and had some young players in the side due to injuries. They arrive tomorrow in with a chance of automatic promotion although we didn't help them on Saturday by losing to the Blunts.
Third meeting between the sides this season one win each both at Elland Road, we won th League cup tie 2-0 with Barker scoring a wonder goal and in the league we were stuffed 3-0, think that night Bielsa wanted to make a point and they certainly did that night. Interestingly Bielsa was impressed with the style of football we play, considering we were at the bottom of the table that was no mean compliment.
They have a small squad compared to us but have obviously bought into the way the manager has wanted them to play, like us they have also had injuries, Roofe has been the major miss although he was back in the squad at Brum, from the hightlights of that one Bamford should have had three, Douglas the full back is out for the season, possible doubt over Hernandez.
Saturday was a hard game several players were not fully fit, Robinson and Briowne, bit short on numbers again, almostb at the point of no return for the Whites lose this and personalview that will be it for this season.


Ref Watch: Leeds United

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The match official for Tuesday evening’s game against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United at Deepdale is Robert Jones.
The referee, from Merseyside, is in his third season on the EFL lists. He has officiated three North End games during his career, but this will be the first time he has taken charge of PNE this season.

His first visit to PR1 was the 1-1 draw against Rotherham in April 2017 and most recently he refereed the Lilywhites’ 2-1 victory away against QPR in April 2018.

The 33-year-old’s other game at Deepdale saw him send off PNE midfielder John Welsh for two bookable offences during the 1-1 draw against Wolves in February 2018.
He has already officiated three Leeds United games this season and the Yorkshire side have won two of those games and drew the other one.

This will be his 33rd game this season and he has issued 98 yellow cards and one red card. The referee has also awarded five penalties so far this season as well as taking charge of our visitors three times so far.

The assistants for the night’s game will be Nick Hopton and Shaun Hudson while Oliver Langford is the fourth official.

• Team News: Leeds United

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Preston North End manager Alex Neil has no new injury concerns for his side’s clash with high-flying Leeds United on Tuesday night.
Alan Browne returned to the squad for the clash with Sheffield United at the weekend, but the boss could not call upon Daniel Johnson, who had an Achilles problem.

Paul Gallagher and Ben Pearson were both included in the squad against the Blades, despite niggles and are again expected to play through the pain barrier against Marcelo Bielsa’s men.

Club captain Tom Clarke remains on the sidelines, with Tom Barkhuizen (knee), Andrew Hughes (hamstring) and Josh Harrop and Billy Bodin (both ACL), with the latter quartet all ruled out for the season already, along with Brandon Barker (hamstring).

For the visitors, the Leeds boss must make a late chance on Pablo Hernandez, who picked up a kick late in the defeat at Birmingham City, leaving St Andrews in a protective boot.
Speaking at his press conference for the game under the Deepdale floodlights, Bielsa said of his attacker: “There is a possibility that Pablo cannot play the game. [Kemar] Roofe will play in his position if Hernandez cannot play.

“He received a kick in the last minute of the [Birmingham City] game. We are not going to take any risks if playing makes his injury worse.

“[Roofe] missed a lot of time. The minutes he had in the previous game were minutes without much space. To get to his usual performance level, he has to play. We cannot verify his level in training but he has done very high work and is in very good physical condition.”

 

Do you have supplies of prozac available at deepdale? this is going to be quite a tense game for us, probably for the reason you state above. It's getting close to that last chance saloon and we can hear the fat lady tuning up!!

Take a look in at the thread on the Leeds board, they aren't a bad bunch.

 

I think NE have only pride to play for. So, a good win against Leeds would bode well for next season. Hopefully next season will be less injury stricken. I suspect vultures with plenty of money are hovering around NE for the likes of NE's centre half pairing.

 

Preston North End 0 Leeds United 2 Bamford 2

PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Earl, Pearson, Storey, Davies, Nmecha (Stockley, 87), Johnson, Maguire (Ledson, 70), Browne (c), Robinson (Moult, 58). Subs not used: Crowe, Rafferty, Ginnelly, Huntington.

Leeds United line-up: Casilla, Ayling, Cooper (c), Bamford (Roofe, 90), Alioski, Roberts (Forshaw, 83), Jansson, Hernandez, Harrison (Berardi, 77), Phillips, Klich. Subs not used: Peacock-Farrell, Dallas, Shackleton, Stevens.

Attendance: 18,109 (5,426 Leeds United fans)

Referee: Mr R Jones

Once Bamford had scored a worldie it was game over especially considering we had 10 men after the sending off of the much carded Pearson (more later on Pearo)
A second for Bamford from about 10 yards out confirmed the points for the Yorkshire side and put them back into second place above rivals Sheffield United.
A large and noisy Leeds supported ensured there was a decent atmosphere when the game kicked off, with Phillips testing Rudd in the first 10 seconds, although they had plenty of the ball can't actually recall them creating a clear opening although Klich was narrowly wide from just inside the area.
We created little which was a pity that we didn't test the slightly excentric Casilla, although the Leeds stopper was rather lucky when he was about 25 yards from goals when Nmecha's excellent ball played in Robinson, if he had been furthr back he may have been in trouble, apart from that and a few corners mostly shocking we created nothing.
The turning point of the game came with Pearson being red carded for bringing down Bamford as he sped towards goal, there may have been cover but he got a straight red, if he had got a yellow it would have been a second one so we knew it was the end of the game for him.
Leeds took advantage of the extra space and it was only how long could we hold on, but once Bamford found the net game over.
He could have had a hat trick but a brilliant tackle by Davies denied him.
Onto Pearson, got booked for his first tackle of the game, yes he gets frustrated and I'm not surprised Ayling flattened Earllong after the ball had gone didn't get a card, Alioski fouled Nmecha at least four times in the first half got a card late on, but it is the utter lack of consistancy with some of the officials that is not helping.
Given it's his third sending off it's season over for Pearson.


Preston boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"I thought we were great. Most teams that play Leeds don't go toe-to-toe with them - they give them the respect they deserve because of where they are in the league.

"They blitz teams normally, but we went toe-to-toe and I can't really ask much more of the players in terms of effort and endeavour.

"The game changes with a mistake. We play a square pass, it gets cut out, and they feed the ball straight in behind. Ben has to try to recover and Patrick Bamford uses his head, he gets his body in front, goes down and it's a sending-off.

"If there's a team in this league that you don't want to go down to 10 men against, it's Leeds. They used the pitch and the ball very well."

Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I like how Preston play. I like their style, their coach and the players they have. The physical tempo of the game was very high.

"I'm proud because all of the players had a high level of performance.

"Patrick Bamford improved his previous performance today in the game, with two goals and a lot of good work for the team

 

A loss at home is a blow, but to Leeds!!! How come Pearson was last man? Where were the defenders? Time to give the young players a chance. Nothing to lose.

 

Last man is usually Fisher, injuries again a big part to play