Preston North End 0
QPR had some real quality on display and deserved to win the game. I also feel for QPR to put a side like that out against us is a huge compliment to us guys, but my lads deserve a lot of credit for having a real go back at them. Still that decisive 2nd goal went in. This was after our best spell of the game which resulted in our one real chance of the day, Jason, latching on to a great through ball from Jimmy Higgins, snatched at his shot and sliced high and wide of the QPR goal. After that we conceded the penalty and it was basically game over. But as always this was a chance for two groups of supporters to come together and help build bridges between them and this was achieved. The QPR lads were sound and Juzza the QPR Director of Football kindly bought us all a drink after the game. I think there is great respect from each side now towards the other and that is what we all wanted to achieve.
Good Luck to QPR in their quest for the play-offs. Having played all the top teams QPR, if they have the same side out every week, are streets ahead of anybody else in terms of quality.
Thank you
S Cowell. PNE Fans Team Manager
Preston team:
Chris Hall
Johnny PNE
Alex Higgins
Jacko
Ric
Jason Dodwell
Jimmy Higgins
Matty Scott
Andy dodwell
Stu Bolton
Alan Cookson
Subs:
Steve Cowell
Johnny Kershaw
Peter Heaps
Jimmy Grimble
Peschi
Chats
Preston Man Of The Match: Jimmy Higgins
The View From QPR
Steve,
thanks for the kind words. We did have to work hard on a few of our players to get them to turn out. The last few weeks we've struggled to get a bare 11. I think we had 13 up at West Brom last week. I do think the quality of your team helped us to get the players out though. I still think Baggies are the strongest, but if we can get all our players out, I'm sure we can run em close. No disrespect to others at the top, I simply haven't seen you play. Of course, we're back on our travels soon and I'm sure we'll be back to struggling to get 11 again.
I'd like to congratulate PNE on an amazing job, driving 16 players down to London in time for a 10.30 kick-off. Quite incredible. I think when we've played as far away, we've usually stayed overnight beforehand. Of course the downside is the players turn out with a skin-full the following morning. Talking of which, I think I've set a very worrying precedent, as not only did your players get a drink, but my players also got a drink. They were promised one if we won. I won't be doing that again in a hurry - including spectators, that was a 40+ person round! Still, the guy who owns the ground was chuffed with the bar bill and thanks to the excellent behaviour of both your team and ours, he's happy for us to keep this as our home ground and even reduced the price of the pitch by a tenner from the eye-watering 90 quid for future games. Sorry if the sarnies and chips spread a bit thin, I wasn't expecting so many to turn out! It's really exciting for us to have a bar and a reasonably flat pitch. I can only look on in utter envy at the support you get from PNE. Very dashing your new red kit. Hopefully a few more teams from out of the London area will be tempted to visit now we've got half-decent facilities.
I thought we "out-Prestoned Preston". Solid at the back and forever a pain with our speed up front. What we know is that you can't have a single chink in your armour when you play Preston, or you'll get punished, Thankfully, with the good turnout, we had that solidity. Although Jason was irrepressible at times for you, the fact that we kept Andy relatively quiet for much of the game reflected that. Do think you miss Chambers, as the three of them together makes it a defensive nightmare.
When we kept on scuffing those chances and it was still 1-0 after 80 mins, I was very worried, as I know you have the potential to score from nothing. You had reasonable patches of the game when we came under severe pressure, so the second goal was a blessed relief and the third just a product of disappointment and fatigue from your lads. A 4am start can hardly help! Incidently, the lad JJ who scored the 2 goals for us is only 16. He first played for us a year ago.
It was a really tough, competitive game, but there was not one bad tackle and I thought both sets of players behaved impeccably thoughout. The most important thing though, as you mentioned, is we've got the game under our belts, the respect for each other is clearly back a special bond is indeed in place.
A pleasing thing was bringing to an end an unprecedented 4 match streak without a win. This'll be down to the return of our talismanic manager, Inga from bl$$dy NZ. You're not allowed to go on holiday ever again, Inga.
Felt a bit gutted for you lot in the PM after losing in the morning, when QPR scored 2 goals in the last minutes to grab an undeserved 2-2. Still - we had our last minute woes last week up at W Brom and Wolves, so every dog has its day.
Again, thanks ever so much for coming down to us and, on a personal note, I'm chuffed to bits with the PNE pennant signed to me by the great man himself.
Now - Rotherham and Bury ... when you coming down? Beer,chips ... LOL.
Juzza