Rival Watch

[WestYorksRoyal]

Stoke appoint O'Neill. Is he going to turn around their fortunes and drag them up the table? My view is no. Similar to Sunderland and Coleman.

[URZZZZ]

Stoke appoint O'Neill. Is he going to turn around their fortunes and drag them up the table? My view is no. Similar to Sunderland and Coleman.

I think O’Neill is more on the pragmatic style than Coleman was so I think they’ll be perfectly fine

Look at the Northern Ireland results in the last few years, he knows how to keep his teams solid and grind out results. Whereas on the whole, Coleman was very mediocre at Wales apart from one magnificent tournament

[From Despair To Where?]

Johnson obvs a decent player having a good season, but he was bloody awful against us. Worst player on the pitch that day

A lot of Preston fans seem to think he's lazy, inconsistant and over rated. I'd take Pearson or Barkhuizen over him.

[leon]

Chris Martin is a bit of a bell end

[Old Man Andrews]

Chris Martin is a bit of a bell end

Massively overrated as a songwriter imo.

[URZZZZ]

Preston have had 8 penalties so far this season! Is it me or is that extremely high for this stage of the season?

[Snowflake Royal]

Preston have had 8 penalties so far this season! Is it me or is that extremely high for this stage of the season?

They spend half the game rolling around on the floor, so I guess it's inevitable the refs will fall for a few.

[Hound]

Preston have had 8 penalties so far this season! Is it me or is that extremely high for this stage of the season?

They spend half the game rolling around on the floor, so I guess it's inevitable the refs will fall for a few.

Yep that’s no real surprise tbh

[3points]

Preston have had 8 penalties so far this season! Is it me or is that extremely high for this stage of the season?

Remind me a lot of us in Stam’s first season. Pretty average team, riding high. And we had something like 9 penalties before Christmas as well

[Hound]

we had that slightly odd run of missing pens and scoring the rebounds didn’t we?

[URZZZZ]

we had that slightly odd run of missing pens and scoring the rebounds didn’t we?

Yeah, never known anything like it. Must have been a tactic from Stam surely about positioning, when to run in, where to run in etc because it’s too much of a coincidence to score that many rebounds. Interestingly enough, however, we didn’t score any in the second season. Quite strange

[Snowflake Royal]

we had that slightly odd run of missing pens and scoring the rebounds didn’t we?

Yeah, never known anything like it. Must have been a tactic from Stam surely about positioning, when to run in, where to run in etc because it’s too much of a coincidence to score that many rebounds. Interestingly enough, however, we didn’t score any in the second season. Quite strange

McCleary was particularly good iirc.

Reminded me of Morley scoring a header off his own penalty. And Archie skying a certain rebound.

[URZZZZ]

Thinking about penalties, when was the last time we actually scored a penalty? Surely it’s not Millwall (H) in October 2018?

Feels like we never ever get a penalty nowadays

[Hound]

Someone suggested Meite scored one last year, but I couldn’t place it

I think you might be right about Millwall. Baldock scores one a bit earlier vs Villa but can’t think of any more

[Royals and Racers]

3rd of the matches played- who looks as if they could be for the drop ? Barnsley look woeful and on Saturday’s performance Luton could join them. Think Wigan could join them.

[Stranded]

3rd of the matches played- who looks as if they could be for the drop ? Barnsley look woeful and on Saturday’s performance Luton could join them. Think Wigan could join them.

Barnsley are done I think. Not won since the opening day and bar the odd late equaliser it's a surprise when they pick up even a point.

Boro look in trouble and then a toss up between Wigan, Luton, Stoke and Blackburn. We can't be discounted but this uptick in form feels sustainable. Stoke will likely be fine but need to see how they settle under O'Neill when not playing someone so abject.

[WestYorksRoyal]

3rd of the matches played- who looks as if they could be for the drop ? Barnsley look woeful and on Saturday’s performance Luton could join them. Think Wigan could join them.

Barnsley are done I think. Not won since the opening day and bar the odd late equaliser it's a surprise when they pick up even a point.

Boro look in trouble and then a toss up between Wigan, Luton, Stoke and Blackburn. We can't be discounted but this uptick in form feels sustainable. Stoke will likely be fine but need to see how they settle under O'Neill when not playing someone so abject.

It will be interesting to see how we respond to a defeat or poor performance under Bowen, as will happen at some point. I suspect we'll be fine; too much quality to get dragged in and Bowen seems good at the mental side of the game

[Stranded]

3rd of the matches played- who looks as if they could be for the drop ? Barnsley look woeful and on Saturday’s performance Luton could join them. Think Wigan could join them.

Barnsley are done I think. Not won since the opening day and bar the odd late equaliser it's a surprise when they pick up even a point.

Boro look in trouble and then a toss up between Wigan, Luton, Stoke and Blackburn. We can't be discounted but this uptick in form feels sustainable. Stoke will likely be fine but need to see how they settle under O'Neill when not playing someone so abject.

It will be interesting to see how we respond to a defeat or poor performance under Bowen, as will happen at some point. I suspect we'll be fine; too much quality to get dragged in and Bowen seems good at the mental side of the game

That's what I mean by sustainable, I don't think a defeat or even 2 on the spin will derail the improvement this time - we look solid, confident and playing to our strengths and as we do actually have a lot of pretty decent players, this should see us fine. There is every chance that we may pick up 0 points from Brentford (a) and Leeds (H) but if that happens, I think this squad can and will bounce back. We could also easily pick up 4 or 6 points (Brentford's home form is pretty poor so far) as this team seems to believe they are good enough now.

[URZZZZ]

Barnsley are done I think. Not won since the opening day and bar the odd late equaliser it's a surprise when they pick up even a point.

Boro look in trouble and then a toss up between Wigan, Luton, Stoke and Blackburn. We can't be discounted but this uptick in form feels sustainable. Stoke will likely be fine but need to see how they settle under O'Neill when not playing someone so abject.

It will be interesting to see how we respond to a defeat or poor performance under Bowen, as will happen at some point. I suspect we'll be fine; too much quality to get dragged in and Bowen seems good at the mental side of the game

That's what I mean by sustainable, I don't think a defeat or even 2 on the spin will derail the improvement this time - we look solid, confident and playing to our strengths and as we do actually have a lot of pretty decent players, this should see us fine. There is every chance that we may pick up 0 points from Brentford (a) and Leeds (H) but if that happens, I think this squad can and will bounce back. We could also easily pick up 4 or 6 points (Brentford's home form is pretty poor so far) as this team seems to believe they are good enough now.

Under Gomes I’d be more concerned about Brentford because he didn’t really seem to ever set up to how the opposition play apart from a brief spell last year (where he got his best results). You let Brentford play and they’ll beat you

What we need to do against them is keep it solid at the back, don’t make it open because they’ll pick you off, and then work on the counter. It’s what Huddersfield did to them a couple of weeks back. I’m confident Bowen can come up with a good plan

But agree that a couple of defeats shouldn’t derail the season, especially when you consider December is by far and away the most favourable run in so far. If we do manage some points in the next three, December could really see us push up with the likes of Birmingham, Barnsley, Stoke and Derby

[From Despair To Where?]

I don't think Bowen would let a couple of defeats derail it. I like his mantra of earning the right to play by doing the nasty stuff well.

You look at the 2005-07 team and the 2012 team and even with all abundant skill, the spine of both sides would run through brick walls for the team; Ivar, Sonko, Harper Sidwell, Kitson and Doyle or Pearce, Gorkss, Karacan, Liegertwood, Hunt and McAnuff.

I see the potential for that with the current side.