In The Dressing Room Ryan Lowe is again looking at picking from almost a fully-fit squad, with Ben Woodburn the only doubt. The former Liverpool midfielder, who has been out of action since the win at Coventry at the end of August, has stepped up his recovery from injury and is now back out on the grass. Andrew Hughes will be pushing for a start after making his return from a shoulder problem off the bench midweek, while Emil Riis could make his 100th appearance for Preston North End in this fixture. A Look At Our Visitors please log in to view this image After losing in the Play-Offs to Nottingham Forest last season, Sheffield United have picked themselves up and become the early pace setters in this Championship campaign. Paul Heckingbottom’s side have taken 20 points from their opening nine fixtures, sitting as the division’s second-highest scorers, while also posing the second meanest defence in the league – bettered only by PNE. The Blades crucially held on to key players during the summer transfer window, the likes of Iliman Ndiaye and Sander Berge, while adding defensive sensation Anel Ahmedhodžić to their ranks. Going Head To Head Games played: 120 PNE wins: 36 Draws: 32 Sheffield United wins: 52 Last meeting: PNE 2-2 Sheffield United, 18th January 2022 One To Watch please log in to view this image A real fan favourite and one for the future, Iliman Ndiaye has been in superb form for Sheffield United so far this season, with four goals to his name. The forward featured heavily during the last campaign, scoring seven times in 30 league games, but his performances have stepped up a level this term, bringing much more than goals to his game. At the age of 22, he’s got plenty of strings to his bow – able to run the channels, carry the ball with great skill, and also drop deep for his side when needed – and it appears just a matter of time before he reaches the top flight. Match Officials please log in to view this image On Saturday, Jeremy Simpson will referee a Preston North End game for the second time this season. The previous occasion was the goalless draw against Hull City at Deepdale earlier this season, while Simpson also took charge of three PNE fixtures last campaign. So far this term, he has refereed six games, showing 29 yellow cards in that time. He will be assisted on Saturday by Nigel Lugg and Lee Venamore, with Ben Toner on fourth official duties.
Form Guide PNE 9 BLADES 18 MAN IN FORM please log in to view this image Manager Coaching career Barnsley Heckingbottom took the opportunity to gain an academic understanding of football coaching, to set his CV apart from other managers competing for jobs. He completed his BSc (Hons) Sports Coaching at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2013, followed by an MSc in Sport Coaching in 2016, by which point the university had been renamed Leeds Beckett University.[28] He went on to work as a coach with professional club Barnsley's development squad, and was appointed caretaker manager of the first team after Danny Wilson was sacked in 2015. He was not appointed on a permanent basis in favour of Lee Johnson, though was appointed in the caretaker manager role once again the following year after Johnson left to manage Bristol City. During the latter spell, he guided Barnsley to a 3–2 win against Oxford United in the Football League Trophy final[29] and promotion to the Championship by beating Millwall 3–1 in the League One play-off final.[30] His success as caretaker, leading Barnsley to their first cup final victory since 1912 and promotion to the Championship, led to his being appointed head coach on a permanent basis.[31] The good form and results continued for the first half of the 2016–17 Championship season, as the club ended 2016 in ninth position. Heckingbottom was awarded Sports Hero of the Year by The Yorkshire Post.[32] Heckingbottom signed a new rolling contract at Barnsley on 2 February 2018,[33] but he left the club days later to take a similar position with Leeds United. Leeds United On 6 February 2018, Heckingbottom was announced as the new head coach of Leeds United on an 18-month contract.[34] In his first match as head coach, Leeds lost 2–1 to Sheffield United,[35] and finished 13th in the 2017–18 EFL Championship league table. Heckingbottom blooded youngster Bailey Peacock-Farrell as first-choice goalkeeper and also gave debuts to academy players Tom Pearce, Paudie O'Connor, Hugo Díaz and Ryan Edmondson.[36] Heckingbottom integrated further academy players with the first team during a controversial post-season tour of Myanmar.[37][38] Heckingbottom was sacked by Leeds on 1 June 2018, after just four months with the club, and was succeeded by Marcelo Bielsa.[39] Hibernian Heckingbottom was appointed head coach of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian on 13 February 2019.[40] The club went on an unbeaten league run, and Heckingbottom won the Premiership Manager of the Month award for March 2019.[41] Two days later, Heckingbottom won his first Edinburgh derby match as Hibs manager against Hearts at Tynecastle.[42] Hibs finished in fifth position, but Heckingbottom was unhappy that the team "downed tools" in the last few matches of the season.[43] Hibs won only one of their first eleven league matches in the 2019–20 season. Heckingbottom was sacked on 4 November following a 5–2 defeat by Celtic in a League Cup semi-final, with the team sitting in 10th place in the league.[44] Sheffield United Heckingbottom was appointed as under-23s lead coach at Sheffield United in July 2020.[45] After first-team manager Chris Wilder left the club by mutual consent in March 2021, with the team bottom of the Premier League and 12 points adrift of safety, Heckingbottom took interim charge until the end of the season.[46][47] United lost 5–0 to Leicester City in his first match in charge,[48] and relegation to the Championship was confirmed after four more defeats.[49] Sheffield United won three of their last six matches, and Heckingbottom was reportedly shortlisted for the permanent position, but former Fulham manager Slaviša Jokanović was appointed instead, with Heckingbottom returning to his previous role as the under-23s manager at the club.[50] On 25 November 2021, Heckingbottom was appointed manager of Sheffield United, this time on a permanent basis, on a four-and-a-half year deal following the sacking of Jokanović.[51] In his first game in charge, the Blades beat Bristol City 2–0.[52] The team ended the season in fifth place, subsequently qualifying for the promotion playoffs, though they lost to Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals.[53] An impressive start to the 2022–23 season saw Heckingbottom awarded the EFL Championship Manager of the Month award for August 2022 after picking up fourteen points from seven matches.[54] FAMOUS FAN JOE ELLIOTT please log in to view this image Blunt activity http://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11521&pid=235622#pid235622 https://www.sufc.co.uk/ https://www.s24su.com/forum/
Preston North End 0 Sheffield United 2 Ndiaye, McBurnie PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts (Ledson, 82), Whiteman, McCann (Johnson, 69), Browne, Fernández (Brady, 69); Riis (Evans, 69), Parrott (Maguire, 82). Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham. Sheffield United line-up: Foderingham; Ahmedhodžić, Egan, Basham; Baldock, Norwood, Berge, Ndiaye (McAtee, 90+1), Norrington-Davies; McBurnie (Sharp, 82), Brewster (Doyle, 69). Subs not used: Amissah, Khadra, Gordon, Brooks. Attendance: 18,412 (4,428 away fans). Referee: Mr J Simpson. The fans honeymoon with the manager ended after the home defeat against the Blades, there were boos at the end although not as loud as the ones when he took McCann and Fernandez off, "You don't know what you are doing rang out from the Town End, the supporters had a point not one of the five substitutes added anything to the game , there was a cetain irony when the Blades brought on Sharp 240 plus goals and we had Evans and Maguire on, one goal between them in the last two seasons. You could almost prediict what would happen in the first half, following an early McBurnie chance, we actually played pretty well, but spurned our chances as per usual, to be fair Blades got bodies in the way but we really should be converting them, personally think we are trying to be too clever in and around the box. Clearest three on one break, Riis in space, McCann's pass to Parrott didn't control the ball and the chance went west and so did the game. United had had foray's into the area, a header from a central position was headed horribly wide, the goal when it came was crafted and put on a plate for them, Whiteman balls up on teh edge of his own box, Ndiaye still had worked to do and eventually scored via the post. You could see teh confidence being sucked out of the home side fter it went in, United could have had a couple more before teh break, a great tackle by Storey stopped them It was a pretty tepid second half we didn't really create anything apart from a Browne shot, United dealt easily with anything we did which wasn't much Substitutes came and went before we gifted them the secondlate on, Hughes seemed to be sold woefully short by Woodman, the ball eventually found it's way into the net from McBurnie, they could have had more but stopped at two. We had a late call for a penalty but Maguire's ability to fall over precedes him To Cap it all Lancashire lost as well. Well, Ryan you need to sort this and quick Preston boss Ryan Lowe: "The result was tough to take, but I thought we played some fantastic stuff. "We got done from a long ball at the top end of the pitch. We don't clear our lines and we leave it to a goalscorer, who finds a way to get it into the back of our net. "We're disappointed because we played a lot of good stuff against the leaders. Once again, we couldn't find that ruthless edge. "It's a bit of a recurring theme when it comes to chances created." Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom: "We wanted to be better in the second half than we were in the first. I think our goal woke us up, to be honest. "We were lethargic in the first half and weren't aggressive as we normally are. We were second to things and that's what we needed to improve. "All of them will be disappointed with the first half, but they were better in the second half. "We know we needed to be better in the second half and we were. We were strong in the end, it was a strong away performance."
