Match Day Thread Preston North End v Nottingham Forest Deepdale 11/7/2020

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LAST TIME OUT

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1 PRESTON NORTH END 3

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NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0 FULHAM 1

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FORM GUIDE LAST FIVE MATCHES MAX TOTAL 25

PNE 9 FOREST 12

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Taking charge of Saturday’s home game against Play-Off chasing Nottingham Forest is a match official who last refereed a North End game back in January.
Jeremy Simpson was the man in the middle for PNE’s trip to Barnsley late in the first month of the year, having also been the official at Cardiff City just before Christmas, a game that ended 0-0.

He was also in charge at Deepdale for the 3-0 victory over Wigan back in August 2019, the third occasion when he has officiated a Lilywhites match this season.

Prior to that, the Carnforth referee took charge of three North End matches during the 2018/19 season, which all ended in draws.

The most action-packed of these was a 3-3 draw against Sheffield Wednesday in the final home game of the campaign, where Dominica Iorfa was sent off for the Owls.

He also oversaw fixtures against Bristol City and Rotherham United at Deepdale, both of which finished 1-1.

Back in January 2018, the select group two match official took the game in a draw away at Millwall, having also been in charge for a 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers at Deepdale the month before.

He last refereed a match involving Barnsley in November, when they were beaten 4-2 at home by Stoke City.

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Last season, he had the whistle for the Tykes’ home league fixture against Bradford City, a match which they won 3-0.

This will be his 27th match of the season, having so far issued a total of 89 cautions and six red cards. He will be assisted by Mark Russell and Akil Howson, while the fourth official will be Martin Coy.

MACS FOREST DEEPDALE MEMORY

PNE 3 FOREST 0

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4/1/1969

My first ever FA Cup tie at Deepdale, think at the time Forest were in the top division won 3-0 highlight was a Derek Temple run with the ball legged it for about 50 yeards before slotting past the Forest keeper. Large Forest support that day who enjoyed a bit of fistycuffs on the Kop with the home fans.

THE GAME

Still all to play for more so if Cardiff drop points tonight at Fulham, big weekend this, all 10 ten clubs play each other so points will go west.
Forest 12 points off automatic and seven points clear from seventh so can basically say the play offs are virtually certain. Even more intersting were the comments of Lamouchi who described his players as being tired having played so many games in a short space of timed since the restart.
Will this means a bit of squad rotation, seemed like a couple of players were carrying knocks.
No matter what sie he puts out they will be organised hard to break down and will play on the counter

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The meeting at the City Ground the spoils were shared in a 1 all draw both sides won 1 half each as well.

Confidence seemed to fly back into the players in the latter stages of Wednesdays win over Wednesday, Neil has some interesting teams selections to make will Storey play again in a back 3 which worked well, wing backs two forwards find out tomorrow.

 

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Preston North End 1 Stockley Nottingham Forest 1 Grabban pen

A points a point although would have been nice to get three against a well organised Forest side, could have done without the early penalty which looked a little soft but understandable as Da Costa spent most of the afternoon falling over and yelping in pain at the slightest touch.
Grabban did the rest from the spot but not for long Potts sexy ball across the box found Stockley level.
The aforementioned Stockley led the Forest defence winning virtually everything in the air and getting penalised virtually every time by Mr Simpson.
Amoebi surely the best free transfer this season fired narrowly over the bar with his trusted left foot, however it was mainly North End a couple of goal mouth scrambles led to fouls against us as Forest got to half time however bad news for North End, Davies went off with a hamstring injury and Pearson collided withnhis own player and had to be substituted at half time.

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Early Potts rocket over the bar, same player denied by a great block later on.
Forest more in this half as got defenders around Stockley to cut off the second ball, Ameobi again curled on narrowly wide. Watson cleared off the line from a Bauer header and a Barkhuizen effort late on was well blocked, fair result in the end still leaves us 2 points from Cardiff, still all to oplay for but an omninously tough trip to Griffin Park on Wednesday.
Storey, Ledson and Potts now starting to show some promise and Stockley also now begining to be an influence.

 

Preston boss Alex Neil said: "I wouldn't say we are pleased. They had one shot on target and that was the penalty.

"That shows how well we defended. Then it was about converting opportunities.

"It was a really silly penalty to give away. They get a lot of players behind the ball and are difficult to break down, so we made it hard for ourselves.

"But we got the goal back and pushed to get the next one. Unfortunately we couldn't convert any of those opportunities.

"But we are still in the hunt. We have three big games left."

Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi said: "It is a good point and a good performance. I think it was a fair result, a good result.

"I am happy for the boys because they never give up, they are focused and serious. They are fighters.

"After many games in a few days they are very concentrated, looking forward and they know they have to keep going."