Yes, Preston remain sixth in the Championship – and this time, didn’t have to rely on any other teams.
Instead, North End and the rest of the Championship have been out of action this weekend, as football in England has been postponed until April – though even that looks ambitious.
The COVID-19 outbreak means football has been suspended, and the truth is that nobody really knows when play will resume. That leaves The FA, the Premier League and the Football League with big decisions to make.
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How does the season end? Will the season be voided? Will teams be promoted? What happens to playoff teams? When will the season even be concluded?
These are decisions that need to be made in the coming weeks, with fans, players and staff all left wondering what the future holds for the 2019-20 season.
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On Saturday, Preston’s advisor to the owner Peter Ridsdale spoke to Sky Sports, and offered his thoughts on the dilemma facing English football with just weeks of the season left to go.
Ridsdale suggested that the integrity of the league must be kept, believing that the season must be played out whether that is in May or June – a rather unsurprising stance given that Preston sit in the top six.
“To the best of my knowledge the clubs haven’t been consulted so far but it’s very early days,” said Ridsdale. “It was only yesterday that it was decided we wouldn’t be playing before April 3. We need to sit down and look at all of the implications, all of the options available to us and see if we can play on April 3 or if this continues until May or June. There is something like nine games to play and there is plenty of time in May and June to play those games. The integrity of the competition is very important.”
Additionally, Ridsdale commented on former club Leeds United, understanding that they don’t want to see all their hard work in the promotion race go to waste, believing that the right thing is to see the season out rather than scrap it or award promotions now.
“I can’t speak for Leeds United but obviously it’s 16 years since they’ve been in the top flight and I would’ve thought, sitting where they are in the table, they would wish to be promoted. I’m sure if that opportunity was given to them they would take it. But for the good of football and for everybody, what we have to do is to make sure that if we can, we complete the season and then the league table at the end should be the one that determines who gets promoted and who gets relegated,” he added.