Match Day Thread Preston North End v Nottingham Forest Deepdale 16/2/2019

A quick turn around from last night's game with Forest having an extra days rest would not be surprised if Neil makes some changes to the side as there were some tired legs at the end of the Norwich game. Interesting game this one as we go looking for a season double over Forest since the 1-0 win at the City ground late last year with Moult's goal being decisive.
Sinced that defeat Forest have changed manager bringing in Martin O'Neill with his lovely sidekick Roy Keane, results have picked up and last time out they were denied by a dubious penalty at Albion after Gayle fell over.
Form guide they are 17th whilst we are second. Will have to keep a close eye on Grabban like Pukki last night a danger in front of goal. Should have a decent following from Trent land should be a decent game


Team News: Nottingham Forest

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Preston North End manager Alex Neil has said that he may need to rotate his squad, with the side’s third big game in the space of a week.

The Lilywhites face Martin O’Neill’s Nottingham Forest at Deepdale on Saturday and despite not having any new injury worries, players could be rested.

The likes of Daniel Johnson, Lukas Nmecha and Jayden Stockley have all come off the bench and had an impact in recent games and will challenge for starting berths.

Connor Simpson (ankle), Callum Robinson and Louis Moult (hamstring) and Billy Bodin and Josh Harrop (both ACL) are all definitely ruled out.
The visitors will hope to have both Matty Cash and Molla Wague back available for the weekend trip to PR1. The duo missed out on a place in the Reds squad that took a point at West Brom, because of minor injury problems.
But O’Neill says they have a chance of returning this weekend. Speaking to the Nottingham Evening Post he said: “They both had injuries, yes. Cash went off in the game on Saturday with a slight problem and was still feeling it. Hopefully a couple more days might help him.

“Wague had a bit of an issue in training, so we took him out of the picture completely. But he is improving and I am hoping that he will be available for selection this weekend.”

Whilst the former Republic of Ireland boss also admitted he will consider changes for the match: “The team put a big effort in there and they put in a big effort last Saturday.

“We might change things around again at Preston, because we might need to freshen things up and there are boys dying to play at the minute.

“But those are famous last words… perhaps we will go with the same team again,” he added.

Ref Watch: Nottingham Forest

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It was December 2017 the last time Saturday’s match official, Tim Robinson, took charge of the Lilywhites.
That game, a 1-0 win at home to Sheffield United, saw Robinson as the man with the whistle at a PNE game, for the second time in three weeks.

Tim, from West Sussex, in his seventh year on the EFL list and was the match official for the 1-1 draw with Norwich City at Carrow Road in November that same season.

Before that, he last took charge of North End in his only trip to Deepdale, when we overcame Birmingham City 2-1 back in March of the previous season.
That was his fourth game overall in charge of the Lilywhites, the others all being away trips; Brentford, Ipswich and a 2-0 victory at Coventry City when Joe Garner and club captain Tom Clarke were on the scoresheet.
This will be his 25th game of the season, his last being Tuesday’s goalless draw between Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday at the Den, and in the previous 24 he has issued 91 cautions and seven red cards.

This is his second Forest game of the season, having overseen their 2-2 home draw with Birmingham City back in August.

The assistants on Saturday afternoon will be Jonathan Hunt and Mark Jones, whilst the fourth official assigned to the game is John Brooks.

 

Preston North End 0 Nottingham Forest 0

PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Hughes, Pearson, Storey, Davies, Potts, Gallagher © (Stockley, 46), Maguire (Nmecha, 64), Browne, Barkhuizen (Johnson, 64). Subs not used: Crowe, Earl, Clarke, Ledson.

Nottingham Forest line-up: Pantilimon, Colback ©, Grabban, Murphy (Carvalho, 71), Osborn, Milosevic, Robinson, Yates, Lolley, Darikwa, Benalouane. Subs not used: Steele, Wague, Gonclaves, Jacob, Pele, Bonatini.

Attendance: 13,904 (1,913 Nottingham Forest fans)

Referee: Mr T Robinson

Well it wasn't a classic with only five shots on target all afternoon, probably both sides didn't do enoug to win and so it proved with North End starting at a furious pace for about the first 10 minutes with Potts being denied when his shot from about 10 yardshit the Forest keeper and went for a corner but after the initial thrust Forest took control. Personally was surprised we kept an unchanged side and it showed when Forest started to dominate just looked off the pace, passing was average at best and with Forest sat back the build upo play was slow, we also were a bit sloppy with some of our defensive play Fisher had Pearson to thank for getting him out of jail when his clearence hit a Fporest player and ran to Lolley who had a clear run on goal until the Pearson cleared the danger, we were also caught out by a long ball Grabban went clear but both and Rudd forced Grabban away from the danger area.
The visitors had the ball in the net but the Grabban was offside, towards half time we began to inch are way back into the game but to be honest to be level at half time was a relief.
Stockley for Gallagher at half time, probably shaded the half again Potts was denied by the giant Pantilimon but chances were few abd far between as Forest sat deep and tried to play on the break, we may have got lucky when again Forest had the ball in the net when Lolley found the empty net after a fould on Rudd. Grabban ploughed a loan furrow up front and was on the end of some poor final balls aimed at him. Storey headed over from the last free kick of the day fair result in the end.

O'Neill's view

Nottingham Forest manager Martin O'Neill was left frustrated as a decision by the match officials had a big impact on the game for the second time in a week.

The Reds had two goals ruled out against Preston this afternoon and the second disallowed goal from Joe Lolley left O'Neill rueing the call as he felt it should have stood.

Speaking after the game, he said: "We should have taken all three points and the goal should have stood. I have seen it back and the goalkeeper has spilled the ball, it is there to be fought for and we have put the ball in the net.

"It should be a goal and we have been robbed of all three points, again, in a matter of three days so that is four points and it is a lot to take.

"It is frustrating and these are the points that you can't get back, not at this stage of the season anyway. If it is early on in the season you can ignore it, get on with it and think things will level themselves up.

"That is a lot of points at this stage of the season and twice in a matter of three or four days."

Overall, O'Neill felt The Reds had the better of the match and should have come away from Deepdale with the three points.

He said: "I thought we had the better chances in the first half and I thought we were going to score. We started a bit slowly in the first few minutes of the game and had to defend strongly. We had to head a few balls clear and Preston had a lot of confidence after beating Norwich in midweek.

"We had to see that spell through and as we got into the game, we created some really decent chances and overall I thought we deserved to get all three points."

 

Alex On A ‘Lethargic’ Game

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Alex Neil admitted today’s game wasn’t a pretty sight as North End and Nottingham Forest played out a 0-0 draw at Deepdale.

Chances were few and far between for both sides throughout the game, and after the dizzying heights of just three days before against Norwich City, Alex was honest in his assessment of the quality on show this afternoon.

“It was a hard fought point but It wasn’t a great game” “We started the first ten minutes really well.”

“They were better towards the end of the first half and they looked like the team that would be more in control of the game at that stage.

“A little bit of quality was always going to be the deciding factor but neither side could come up with that little bit.
“I can’t fault the effort of the players, sometimes you get poor games - I think we’ve been fantastic value this season when we’ve played. I’ve watched Forest against West Brom, and that game was very similar. They’re a hard team to break down and a hard team to beat.

“Even when we did change it - and we made the subs quite early but they didn’t really make an impact on the game.

“I thought both teams were lethargic and it certainly won’t be a game that anybody will be talking about soon.”

Alex acknowledged that the stalemate was also down to how difficult their opponents were to break down, and felt whoever scored the first goal would have had a massive advantage in the game.

“When you consider the type of team Nottingham Forest are, the first goal is always crucial” he added.

“They certainly build from the back and they’re really solid. If you can damage them and score a goal it forces them to come out and be more expansive which leaves us more spaces to play.
"We had three key chances in the first half where if one of them goes in, the game would have been a lot better then it was what we didn’t want to do is be too expansive because I thought we were a little bit slack.

“The lads needs a few days now” continued Alex after North End played out their third game in seven days. “They’ve put so much effort in pretty much everyday to prepare for the games and they certainly deserve the rest and we’ll get them back in Tuesday - ready to go again ahead of Saturday.”