Preston North End fought back to gain a point with a 1-1 draw at home to Oxford United, but it was two points dropped after a dominant display, coupled with an avoidable goal conceded.
Despite starting the game positively, North End found themselves behind after 21 minutes, which sucked the energy out of the game and turned it into a battle for The Lilywhites to get back into it.
A strong start
Paul Heckingbottom had made four changes to the side that had played at West Bromwich Albion. Andrew Hughes returned to the side in place of Jack Whatmough. Ben Whiteman returned with Stefan Thordarson making way. More surprisingly Will Keane came in for Mads Frokjaer, and Duane Holmes would take up an unfamiliar role as right-wing-back in place of Josh Bowler.
Chances were aplenty in the first half. North End’s most creative player Sam Greenwood did an Aiden McGeady-esque pirouette in the middle of the pitch before driving forward and forcing a fine save from Jamie Cumming.
Kaine Kesler-Hayden also forced Cumming into a good stop after cutting onto his right-foot in the area. Preston then created the best move of the game, and it came when they were under pressure.
Playing out of the back has rightly received a lot of attention due to what happened later in the game, but at one point it was executed perfectly. Jordan Storey and Duane Holmes were pushed into the corner but managed to manipulate the ball out of danger, before Holmes played a wonderful cross-field pass to Greenwood.
Greenwood unselfishly cut it back for Keane who skied the ball over the bar. The move deserved a better finish and in hindsight Greenwood should have taken it on himself.
Another Woodman error
It looked like there was only one team who could break the deadlock, and Preston would have been disappointed to go into the break level. However Oxford took advantage of a Woodman mistake for the second time this season. In the fixture at the Kassam Stadium in August, Woodman found himself miles out of position when a cross came in, and a tame header looped over him.
This was much worse though. Under Heckingbottom we quite often take a short goal kick to a defender who then returns it to Woodman. This gives the opposition time to close us down. There were still plenty of options for Freddie however, but he inexplicably gave it straight to Ruben Rodrigues who applied the finish.
It wasn’t close to any other North End player, and has to be put down to a lack of concentration. It changed the whole game, and from then on you knew Oxford would just sit in.
The crowds response
Now I understand both points of view here. Seeing an unavoidable mistake like that is incredibly frustrating. Frustrating is a word you can use to sum up life as a Preston supporter over the last five years or so. For context this was not Freddie Woodman’s first mistake this season.
He has made plenty of glaring mistakes throughout his Preston career. He also gave the ball away in a similar situation in the opening game of the season against Sheffield United. His red card against Stoke City is still unfathomable.
Obviously when a goalkeeper makes a mistake it quite often results in a goal. It’s an unforgiving role on the pitch, and as Heckingbottom rightly said after the game, every other player will have given the ball away more times than Woodman.
Woodman was jeered the next few passes he made, by home and away fans. He was also heckled as he walked off at half time. Obviously that is not going to help him, but I can understand why it happens. Their frustrations boil over. Preston supporters invest a lot of time and money into this club and it means so much to them. To have a game turned on it’s head by someone not doing their job properly is incredibly annoying.
We all want to see the club progress, and whilst things on and off the pitch have felt very dull and lacking any sort of progress for some time, mistakes like this can see these type of emotions come out.
Every fan wants to see Freddie Woodman perform well for Preston North End. Unfortunately that has not been the case particularly this season. He seems incapable of putting together a good run of games. A mistake is always around the corner. If that was his first mistake I doubt there would have been the negative reaction from some fans.
Of course the correct way to respond to a mistake like that would be for the fans to get behind him and the vast majority did. Preston supporters have got behind Freddie throughout his two-and-a-half years at the club, but others are exasperated at what has been a poor season on the whole. The situation could have been helped if the goalkeeper held his hands up at half-time and apologised to the fans, but he didn’t. He also shrugged off Holmes and Whiteman who ran to support him.
He probably hasn’t been helped by a lack of competition in that position. Regardless of what Woodman does (bar his idiotic red card), he knows he will play the next game. The situation has to be reviewed and it would be alarming if Woodman was handed a contract extension.
Rowett’s record
As soon as Gary Rowett was announced as the man to replace Des Buckingham as Oxford United manager, Preston fans will have gulped at the fact their nemesis was back in the job.
Rowett has faced Preston 15 times as a manager and not once has he lost. Quite an incredible record which he has recorded with Birmingham City, Derby County, Stoke City, Millwall and now Oxford. This felt like one of the ‘easier’ opportunities to put that record to rest but it lives on. He’s certainly had a very strong start to his current job, with 10 points picked up from the first 10 games.
Oxford did what they had to do to come away from Deepdale with a point. They were probably one of the least threatening teams we have seen all season, but they still got the job done.
Keane and Holmes
It was very surprising to see Will Keane return to the starting lineup. Since signing a new contract earlier in the season his form has been poor. He was out with an injury for two months, but has looked off the pace since.
He was our top scorer last season, and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. He was in that spot a few times on Saturday, and finally scored with a chance he couldn’t miss. Heckingbottom is obviously a fan of Keane and he did make a difference as a half-time sub against West Brom at home, but then looked lost in the recent match against Sheffield Wednesday.
If we are playing two strikers, you feel Milutin Osmajic has to be one of those. The fans sung for him to come on in the second half, and Hecky duly obliged just after Keane scored. I think it would have been Keane making way, but his goal ensured he stayed on.
Osmajic plays better when we can open up the game and there is space for him to run into. There was plenty of that in the first half, and by the time he came on it was too tight.
Holmes came in for Bowler on the right, and it isn’t a comfortable role for him but he came away with man of the match. He didn’t have a great deal of defending to do, so he could focus on cutting it and getting the ball forward.
His assist actually came when he switched to the left and it was an inch perfect cross with his weaker foot. A strong showing from Holmes, but he will prefer to play more centrally.
Surprising subs
As mentioned the fans felt as if Osmajic was the obvious substitution to make but he had to wait. Heckingbottoms’s first role of the dice was to bring on Thordarson and Mads Frokjaer for Ali McCann and Greenwood. Both caught the crowd by surprise.
McCann and Greenwood have been our best players this season in my opinion. The latter can create something out of nothing, and had been heavily involved in the game. Whilst McCann is more of a defensive player, he can be key to turnovers and counter attacks.
Thordarson had no effect when he came on, so that was a poor choice in hindsight. Frokjaer made sense, but either Keane or a defender should have made way. Oxford were posing no attacking threat whatsoever so to continue with three centre-backs was the wrong decision. The game was there for the taking.