The referee will take all the headlines after one of the worst decisions you are ever likely to see, but Preston can have no complaints about the loss. Bristol City were the much better side in the 3-1 victory for The Robins at Deepdale.
It’s been a disappointing run of four games for The Lilywhites, after throwing away two and three goal leads against Norwich City and Plymouth Argyle, they followed it up with an abject performance against Arsenal.
The players rested for that Arsenal game such as Ali McCann, Ben Whiteman and Jordan Storey didn’t have their best games, so it turned out to be pointless not playing them in midweek.
The handball
Tom Nield will be feeling embarrassed and very stupid today. For him and his two linesman to not see one of the most blatant handballs ever is disgraceful. It wasn’t just the fact Yu Hirakawa handled the ball, but he took a huge swipe at it to knock it out of Freddie Woodman’s hands. At least Diego Maradona tried to cover it up. The Preston players rightly protested, and it actually led to Mads Frokjaer wrongly receiving a yellow card for pointing it out. All we will receive is an apology in due course.
It was an awful header from Storey that led to the handball as it put Woodman in a difficult position.
It set the tone for the game, with plenty of other decisions going Bristol City’s way from then on. The majority of their team went down with an ‘injury’ in that first half, as they were clearly happy to waste as much time as possible.
For the cheat Yu Hirakawa, hopefully karma hits him hard at some point. I’m surprised one of the Preston players didn’t give him a full bloodied challenge during the game. He will now have a reputation in football for all the wrong reasons.
As for the referee, Tom Nield should never work at this level again. To be that bad at your job, there has to be repercussions.
Switching sides
For the fourth league game in a row, the teams switched around before kick off which meant North End kicked towards the Town End in the first half. It should be insignificant, but it doesn’t seem that way.
The second half is where the game is decided and with Preston attacking an end with none of our fans in just seems less effective. Ben Whiteman said that they had chosen to go with this method after it worked against Watford when we scored three goals in that second half.
It often feels like the Town End can almost suck the ball into the net at times, and on Saturday the fans were riled with the way the game was going, and could have been the 12th man when needed.
Preston actually did well to settle into the game after the handball, and the equaliser came at a good time. Three in three for Sam Greenwood in the league now. We then should have kicked on, but were sloppy at the back to let Bristol City back into it, but that may have been down to an unbalanced side.
Potts shouldn’t play on the left
With Robbie Brady currently injured, Paul Heckingbottom had to shuffle his team around. Kaine Kesler-Hayden has looked really good this season, but he his better on the right side. He saw a lot of the ball in the first half, but Bristol City quickly worked out he wanted to cut in onto his right foot, and his final ball was letting him down.
In the second half we switched Brad Potts onto the left hand side and he looked uncomfortable. Let’s not forget he is a central midfielder, who has been learning the role of a right-wing-back in the last couple of years.
He’s not natural on the left side and was caught way out of possession for Bristol City’s second goal. McCann was there to cover but as he was on a yellow he backed out of a challenge.
The signing of Jeppe Okkels looks more and more pointless each week. He played well against Arsenal, but Heckingbottom seems to reluctant to give him a start in the league.
Kian Best is a natural left footer in our squad, and played well as a left-wing-back at the start of last season. Heckingbottom clearly isn’t keen on him. He hasn’t played Best in any league games, and has been limited to just 52 minutes of football in the cup. Unfortunately it now looks like Best will be leaving at the end of the season, with his contract set to expire and no game time on the horizon.
Striker predicament
Layton Stewart must also be considering his future. In the last six games we have been without Milutin Osmajic and Will Keane. Emil Riis has had to lead the line on his own aside from the Arsenal game where we chose not to play a striker.
Stewart hasn’t played a single minute this season. Riis has struggled at times, and even when we are chasing the game like on Saturday Stewart wasn’t thrown on.
This is a 22-year-old striker who came through the ranks at Liverpool, how bad can he be? A very strange situation for him. If he’s getting no game time now, then when will he?
We desperately need Osmajic back though, he is more of an all round striker than Riis, and at least it would then give Heckingbottom the option of playing two up front again.
Defenders are not cut out for this style of play
It’s clear Heckingbottom wants the team to play out from the back, which is something I’m not against. However when it is clearly not working against an opposition then don’t be afraid to switch it up.
We don’t possess defenders capable of successfully passing it out around the back. The look very uncomfortable when on the ball and under pressure. Storey is good at defending, but when he has to carry the ball upfield it is a tough watch. His passes always seem to bobble and make it difficult for the reciever.
Equally Liam Lindsay defends well in the middle of a back three, but I don’t want to see countless passes between the defenders as the opposition puts more and more pressure on them until they make a mistake.
Unfortunately Andrew Hughes isn’t the player he once was, and should only be a back-up at this level now. If Heckingbottom wants to play this way, he needs new defenders in January.