City 1 Preston 0
With struggling Preston North End arriving at the Walkers, this appeared to be a 'must win' for both sides to climb away from the wrong end of the Championship table and improve their league positions. Sven made 7 changes from the side beaten harshly 4-1 by the Albion last Tuesday, in an attempt, presumably, to find his strongest and most consistent team.
Weale replaced Logan between the sticks, unsurprisingly, but Vitor kept his place at the centre of the defence, accompanied by Hobbs, with loaners Naughton and Cunningham returning at full back. With Oakley and Howard on the bench, Andy King was made skipper for the day, with Wellens, Gallagher and Abe in midfield, and Fryatt and Waghorn up front, presumably to use their pace against the ageing Wayne Brown, one of 3 former City players in the PNE team that included Hume and Davidson. Only Brown received the boos of the City faithful, Hume cheered!
PNE's manager, Darren Ferguson, presumably had "The Beast", Parkin, injured from up front, a similar player in 'style' to our Steve Howard that can cause problems and score goals, and other than St Ledger and Lonergan and the 3 former City players, the remainder of the PNE team were a fairly unknown quantity, as PNE have their own financial problems at present…..
Preston won the toss and decided to kick towards their own fans in the first half. It was good to see a young lady, complete with pony tail, as the Referee's Assistant and running the line in front of the East Stand in this male dominated sport, and to be fair, she only made a couple of mistakes throughout the game, probably down to nerves, taking her time to make each decision. "Where did she change?" said one fan nearby!
Immediately from their kick off, City lost the ball on their right with Naughton caught in possession, and as PNE crossed the ball into the danger zone, from 6 yards out, the lanky Treacy thankfully hit the ball wide of his target – 25 seconds on the clock. Phew!
After this early escape, the match settled down as the Foxes took the game to Preston, and they started to pass the ball around very well, with Gallagher on the left impressing, linking well with Cunningham and King. King fired the ball across the PNE box but no one read it to be on the end of an excellent cross.
As City pressed for the opening goal, Waghorn found himself unmarked in the box 10 yards out, and what looked like a certain goal, Waghorn managed to slice his shot into the crowd, perhaps a sign of lack of confidence at the moment. Then Gallagher shot from 25 yards and his goal bound drive was tipped over the bar by keeper Lonergan.
A series of corners on the right followed, with Waghorn firing the ball to the far post, but no City player wanted the responsibility of heading the ball back across the crowded goal area to create danger. Infact, when did we last score from the many corners we seem to obtain these days? Elliott, Walsh and Taggart found all of these crosses 'meat and drink!'
The Foxes were the better team as PNE rarely threatened, and in the 35th minute, were duly rewarded. The improving Abe found space and picked out Gallagher in the box and he calmly passed the ball into the net with his left foot from 10 yards past the diving Lonergan.
The City defence was coping well with any Preston attack and Vitor was impressing with Naughton and Cunningham equally confident on the ball, with Naughton going on several runs down the right and crossing into the Preston box. With Howard missing up front, too many balls from the back and midfield were being pumped into the Preston half, and as Fryatt and Waghorn have little intention of jumping and heading the ball against the visitor's defenders, the ball was continually coming back to the City midfield, with little threat being caused by the front 2.
Infact, Fryatt and Waghorn were finding it hard to get into the game, yes an occasional run, but a lack of confidence is evident and it was hard to see where a second goal would come from other than a City midfielder.
After seeing all the City's Veterans on the pitch with the Birch (surely he's also one!), some of them seemed to be finding it difficult to walk a lap of the pitch, but great to see some of the old players in attendance.
The second half continued as the first with little threat from the Preston forwards. As the half went on it was obvious Weale was having a problem clearing the ball, and after one of two excursions out of his area, he found a Preston player on the halfway line, who had the presence of mind to fire the ball at the gaping net, but Hobbs recovered his position to stop the ball on the penalty spot and clear the ball.
An excellent move involving Wellens, Gallagher and Cunningham saw the Irishman cut in from the left and as a goal looked certain, he dragged his drive wide of the post. As earlier stated, Sven must have seen the lack of threat up front and bought on Howard for Fryatt after 62 minutes, and Howard immediately started to win headers that Waghorn failed to read or time a run to take any advantage. Waghorn was replaced by N'Guessan after 73 minutes in an attempt to use his pace against the tiring Brown, but N'Guessan found it hard to control the ball at his feet, but he did shoot from 20 yards but into the arms of Lonergan.
With 3 minutes of normal time to go, Gallagher made a tackle on the half way line, and then limped off with Oakley deputising. Keen to impress, Oakley's attempts to put the forwards clear were over hit and little danger resulted, and he managed a yellow card for nothing as City seemed to be panicking in the 4 minutes of additional time, giving away needless free kicks.
With seconds to go to the final whistle, a curling free kick into the box from a wide position found Wayne Brown unmarked on the edge of the 6 yard area, but, thankfully, his header was glanced wide of the far post. Relief all round as the match concluded and 3 points earned against a poor Preston team who lacked any cutting edge upfront, Weale having little to do all game.
The Foxes defence kept their first clean sheet for a long time, with Vitor probably Man Of The Match and he should have a run in the team to prove himself against tougher opposition than Preston. Hobbs still looks a little edgy this term but the 2 full backs do look quality. King, Abe and Wellens did well, but with only a single goal victory, clearly Sven still has a few problems up front, hence looking at Miller from WBA and is it true the rumor? – Rocky Santa Cruz on loan from Man City before completing a move to Fulham in January. Wow!
The next 3 games, with 2 at home, will hopefully see a more settled side that can gain valuable points and move the City further up the Championship table, but any higher than mid table with this current squad of players is questionable, despite the new Owner's desires to be in the Premiership next season. A few millions in Sven's pocket in January might help!
Teams:-
City: Weale, Naughton, Vitor, Hobbs, Cunningham, Abe, Wellens, King, Gallagher, Fryatt, Waghorn. Subs: Howard, Oakley, Morrison, N'Guessan, Logan, Berner, Moussa.
Preston North End: Lonergan, James, brown, St Ledger, Davidson, Coutts, Jones, Russell, Treacy, Hume. Subs: Morgan, Parry, Mayor, Gray, Procter, McLoughlin, Arestidou.
Referee: G Ward Crowd: 21,212
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation