Match Day Thread Preston North End v Stoke City Deepdale 28/9/2020

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MYSTIC MACS FORM GUIDE

PNE 10 STOKE 7

MANAGER

MICHAEL O'NEILL

Brechin City
O'Neill became manager of Scottish side Brechin City in April 2006. He won the Second Division Manager of the Month award in both December 2007[15] and October 2008.[16] O'Neill was released by Brechin City to join Shamrock Rovers on 13 December 2008.[17]

Shamrock Rovers
At the press conference when unveiled as Rovers manager, he cited Gordon Strachan as his main managerial influence.[18] He was awarded the Irish Soccer Writers Manager of the Month award for July 2009 and eventually guided The Hoops to second place in the 2009 League of Ireland.

In October 2010, he guided Shamrock Rovers to win the 2010 League of Ireland title, their first league championship since 1994.[19] O'Neill led Rovers to the 2011 Setanta Sports Cup and then made history by being the first manager of a League of Ireland team to reach the group stages of a European competition.[20] Rovers defeated Partizan Belgrade in the play-off round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.[20] Shamrock Rovers retained their league title in the 2011 season.[21][22] New contract talks between O'Neill and Shamrock Rovers stalled[23] and he left the club in December 2011.[24] O'Neill won the Soccer Writers Association Personality of the Year award for 2011.[25]

Northern Ireland
O'Neill was appointed manager of Northern Ireland on 28 December 2011, with one report stating he was "the first Catholic in 50 years to manage Northern Ireland".[5][26][2] However, this is almost certainly untrue, since previous managers Lawrie Sanchez (2004–07) and Lawrie McMenemy (1998–99) were both educated in Roman Catholic schools.[27][28] O'Neill's first game in charge ended in defeat with a 3–0 loss to Norway.[29] In his next game an inexperienced Northern Ireland team were beaten 6–0 by the Netherlands in Amsterdam.[30] During their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification, Northern Ireland earned some creditable results, including a 1–1 draw away to Portugal and a 1–0 home win against Russia.[31]

In November 2013, O'Neill agreed a new two-year deal with Irish Football Association to remain as Northern Ireland manager.[32]

Northern Ireland qualified for their first ever European Championship, Euro 2016 in France after beating Greece 3–1 at Windsor Park on 8 October 2015.[33] It was the first time in 30 years that Northern Ireland had qualified for a major tournament. At the tournament itself he led the side to the second round, losing narrowly to Wales[34] but recorded a surprise victory over Ukraine in the group stages.[35]

In January 2018, O'Neill turned down an offer to become manager of Scotland following discussions with the Scottish Football Association.[36]

O'Neill initially continued as Northern Ireland manager after his appointment by Stoke City in November 2019.[37] He had intended to stay on for UEFA Euro 2020 playoffs, which had been scheduled for March 2020, but these were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[38] With the Euro 2020 playoffs delayed at least until the autumn of 2020, O'Neill resigned as Northern Ireland manager on 22 April.[38]

Stoke City
O'Neill was appointed manager of EFL Championship club Stoke City on 8 November 2019.[37] He joined Stoke with the side bottom of the 2019–20 EFL Championship table after struggling under the management of Nathan Jones.[39] O'Neill won his first match in charge of Stoke, 4–2 away at Barnsley on 9 November.[40] Stoke began to improve and secured vital victories over Wigan Athletic, Luton Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town, helping the team move out of the relegation zone at the turn of the year.[41] In the January transfer window O'Neill cancelled the loans of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Mark Duffy and Scott Hogan, whilst also letting Peter Etebo, Badou Ndiaye and Ryan Woods leave on loan. Into the team came Northern Irish midfielder Jordan Thompson from Blackpool, center-back James Chester on loan from Aston Villa and young midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe from Tottenham Hotspur.[42] Stoke beat Hull City 5–1 on 7 March 2020 moving the team three points above the drop with nine remaining matches.[43] The Championship was suspended on 13 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44]

Championship squads returned to training on 25 May with the intention to finish the season behind closed doors.[45] Stoke's preparations for the season restart were disrupted after O'Neill tested positive for coronavirus on 9 June which caused a training match against Manchester United to be cancelled.[46] Stoke won four of the remaining nine matches to avoid relegation and finish in 15th position, finishing eight points clear of the relegation zone.[47]

Due to the ongoing pandemic the 2020–21 season began later in September with matches continuing to played behind closed doors. O'Neill brought in a number of free transfers including James Chester, Morgan Fox, Steven Fletcher and Mikel John Obi with Jacob Brown the only arrival to have been bought.[48] Stoke began the season well with Tyrese Campbell in decent form, winning eight of their first 16 matches and were just outside the play-off places at the beginning of December.[49] However a number of injuries to key players most notably to Tyrese Campbell saw goals dry up and the team went nine games without a win at the turn of the year.[50] Stoke were unable to put a sustained run of results together in March and April and ended the season in mid-table.[51]

LAST TIME OUT

MACS VIEW

8 games undefeated need to turn some of those legue draws into wins, another tough one against an very much improved Stoke side with very decent players Powell being one.
They have lost their last two away league games so we have a chance, thing Frankie may make some changes tonight, would not be surprised if the impressive McCann starts, hopefully this will be a more open game than Saturday at Birmingham likely to be good conditions for football a fast wet pitch. Also should be a good tmosphere as a sizeable turn out from the Potteries should be there.
A match under the lights is always a great occasion this is the first league match with fans in attendance under the lights since we beat Fulham 2-1 on 10/12/2019
Over the years we have played on Monday night when I fist started used to kick off at 7.30 now it's 7.45 or occasionally 8 pm remember when the club had problems with the floodlights and half the pitch was in darkness, happy days

 

PNE Team News

Tom Barkhuizen, who has been out of action since the opening day of the season due to Covid, is set to be back in contention to feature on Tuesday evening.

So too will club captain Alan Browne, who missed the weekend’s draw against Birmingham through a knock, and Liam Lindsay, who was injured in the Cheltenham Town game last Tuesday.

This match will come too soon, however, for the likes of Ched Evans and Matthew Olosunde, who Frankie McAvoy hopes to have available after the international break.

The Opposition

After finishing 16th, 15th and 14th in the last three seasons respectively, Stoke will be looking to propel themselves into the top half at least, if not into a Play-Off position.

That’s where they sit at the moment, occupying fifth spot, and they’ve tasted victory in their last two matches, firstly over Watford in the Carabao Cup before returning to league action on Saturday with a win over Hull City.

Former Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill is the man in charge of the Potters, as he has been since November 2019, and he’ll likely go for his favoured 3-5-2 formation again at Deepdale.

Key Stats

Stoke’s main source of goals is former Wigan Athletic man Nick Powell, who scored 12 in the Championship last term, while he’s already found the net three times this season, including a stunning free-kick in his last game.

Despite being beaten by the Potters in 2020, PNE tend to do pretty well at home to Stoke, having lost just twice in the last ten times they’ve welcomed their opponents to Deepdale.

Only former Watford defender Ben Wilmot has featured in every single minute – 810 in total – of Championship action so far for Stoke this season.

Our Last Meeting





It was a goalless draw the last time these two sides met, in a game where PNE were probably unfortunate to not take all three points.

Daniel Iversen made a few crucial saves in the first half, before Andrew Hughes struck the post from a free-kick, and North End could have won the game in the final stages as Alan Browne broke into the area, only to be brought down by Harry Souttar who saw red as a result.

Man In The Middle

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John Brooks will be the referee on Tuesday evening and he’s no stranger to this fixture, having taken charge of both Championship meetings between the two in the 2019/20 season, which both ended in victories for PNE.

So far this term, Brooks has been the main official for three games, refereeing in three different competitions: League Two, the Championship and the Carabao Cup.

He’s a very experienced official and this summer was promoted to Select Group 1, the panel of the country’s top referees.

 

Preston North End 1 Whiteman Stoke City 1 Powell

PNE starting line-up: Iversen; Storey, Bauer, Cunningham; van den Berg, Johnson, Whiteman (McCann, 69), Ledson (Murphy, 77), Earl; Maguire (Browne, 63), Riis. Subs: Rudd, Lindsay, Sinclair, Potts.

Subs not used: Rudd, Lindsay, Sinclair, Potts.

Stoke starting line-up: Davies; Ostigard, Souttar, Wilmot; Smith, Sawyers, Vrancic (Clucas, 71), Thompson; Powell, Brown (Surridge, 77). Subs: Bursik, Batth, Doughty, Duhaney, Ince.

Subs not used: Bursik, Batth, Doughty, Duhaney, Ince.

Attendance: 10,930

Referee: Mr J Brooks

 

This was one of those games were you can actually say we were lucky to get a point, bailed out several times by Iversen who was excellent all night against an impressive Stoke side
For 35 minutes we were chasing shadows, one down early on when Powell found space between Bauer and Cunningham to head home we were up against it.
Smith fired one in from 20 yards touched away by teh giat hand of the Dane between the sticks seemed it was only a matter of time until they added a second. That should have come when our defence melted away and Powell was lift with the simple task of side footing past Iversen from about 10 yards this time Iversen's left hand pushed it wide of the post.
At teh time thought they might come to regret that miss and so it proved, slowly got a toe hold in the game and when Earl was brought down on the edge of the box. Whiteman over the wall past Davies level probably the only way we were going to score all night.
Second half was more even with Cunningham beating Davies with an effort from distance sadly he whistled the wrong side of the post.
We had momentum until we made two substitutions half way through the half taking off Maguire being baffling as he was causing the giants at the back problems.
Stoke back in charge should really have taken the lead when Tymon seemed to have a simple tap in from close range but denied again by another fine save by Iversen. We rode our luck in the latter stages with some good defending and escaped with a point.
Stoke best side we have played this season given they were missing Chester, Fletcher and Allen suggests they have depth of squad to go close this season and Friday night's game against the Albion should be one to watch.
QPR for us train from Preston in our ever lengthning quest to draw every remaining game this season.

Preston North End manager Frankie McAvoy told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"I felt Stoke first half caused us lots of issues if I'm being brutally honest, I felt they were the dominant team and it took us a bit of time to get the press right against their 3-4-3.

"I was delighted with Ben's strike to make it 1-1, but Daniel made a fantastic save before that to keep us in the game.

"I felt we started well in the second half, but I would say they're probably the best team that we've played, the team that has caused us the most issues in the games that we've played in the league.

"Over the piece, this is probably one of the games where I felt we were delighted with the point to be honest."

Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:

"It's a point gained when you're away from home, but it does feel like two lost because I felt we were the dominant team for the majority of the game.

"For the first 35 minutes I thought we were brilliant. We should have been more than two ahead and then we concede off the free-kick, it's an excellent free-kick.

"But I thought second half our reaction was good because we controlled the game again, had chances, but just couldn't take the chances, and on the balance of play there was really only one team that was going to win it."

 

To be honest, I can't see the point of playing Cunningham as left centre back. Hughes had a niggle and couldn't play but Lindsay was available. QPR will be another big test down in London.