Preston North End fans are used to heavy defeats under Ryan Lowe now. When it rains it pours, and on Saturday the goals poured in as Watford romped to a 5-1 at Deepdale.
We’ve conceded four or more goals in four league games already this season. That makes up for half of our losses. It isn’t just this season though, Ryan Lowe has overseen plenty of hammerings as Preston manager.
Out of his 93 league games in charge, we have conceded four or more on 12 occasions. Accumulatively Frankie McAvoy, Alex Neil, and Simon Grayson experienced just 11 of those games across a total of 406 league games.
It’s alarming how many losses do get out of hand, and the fans are becoming tired of these heavy defeats. Lowe claims he always has faith in the players, and quite often puts the defeats down to the players not sticking to the game plan.
But given that it happens time and time again there must be an underlying reason, and he has yet to solve it, despite his numerous promises.
PNE 0-4 West Bromwich Albion – 30th September 2023
The first defeat of the whole season caught us by surprise after such a strong start to the campaign. It was disappointing but it was tough to be too critical as we were still in a fantastic position in the table after six wins in a row.
Lowe said that performance was a blip and at that stage it was hard to argue, but it wasn’t a blip, it was a sign of worse things to come.
Ipswich Town 4-2 PNE – 7th October 2023
Bad things seem to happen in batches under Lowe. Four goals followed at Portman Road and the defeats by West Brom and Ipswich sandwiched a 3-0 defeat at Leicester City.
Ipswich are flying high this season, but even still three goals conceded in the first half effectively ended the game. 11 goals conceded in just one week was a sign that the wheels were falling off.
On the back of this defeat Lowe warned his players, “I demand a bit more now and if they can’t handle that they won’t play.” No drastic changes in the side have followed since.
Middlesbrough 4-0 PNE – 28th November 2023
Preston replicated the result suffered at Riverside Stadium last season, but this came against a Boro side without the stars of Cameron Archer and Chuba Akpom last season.
The West Brom defeat led to a further five games without a win. Preston picked up wins against Coventry City, and Blackburn Rovers, and it looked like they had turned the corner. But an agonising defeat against Cardiff City has sent us spiralling out of control.
On this occasion Lowe said ““We were nowhere near the levels and that’s something I’ve got to address and make sure we put right.”
He hasn’t put it right yet.
PNE 1-5 Watford – Saturday 16th December 2023
A terrible defeat at home to Queens Park Rangers followed the Boro game, but Preston held out for a 0-0 at Norwich City and then beat a poor Huddersfield Town side 3-1. Slump done and in the past? No.
Enough is enough for many fans, and boos followed at the end of the game from the supporters who had bothered to stick around. Lowe has a big job on his hands to win back that support, but with tough games coming up over the festive period there could be a couple more thrashings on the cards.
Lowe said he didn’t see that second half coming and he’s said the players need to take responsibility for it. He told the Lancashire Evening Post that “we’ve got to make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
It’s happened 12 times in 93 games Ryan, more than once in every eight games. Odds are that will happen again soon enough. That is if the manager can survive much longer.
Although we are eighth, the wider picture is that this team is in freefall, and a big defeat is only ever just round the corner.