Preston North End lost their sixth game of the season as a Patrick Agyemang goal was enough to give Derby County a 1-0 victory at North End. On a weekend where most other promotion contenders managed to succeed in getting three points, Preston are left hanging onto a play-off position. However with a difficult run of fixtures on the horizon, we could find ourselves in familiar territory soon enough.
Walton steps up
All the pre-match talk was around the rumours that Daniel Iversen had picked up an injury in training, and this was confirmed once Jack Walton was named on the teamsheet. The summer signing from Luton Town had enjoyed two seasons on loan with Dundee United but had only appeared for The Lilywhites in two Carabao Cup games this season.
Iversen has been outstanding this season, often pulling off saves you would never expect him to make. He will be a huge loss if he is out for a sustained period of time. However Walton had a good game, and was not the reason we lost this match.
Derby had a lot of possession in the final third, and ten corners so Walton had to be alert at all times. He made a few good saves from one on one situations, and a particular good stop down to his right shortly before Derby scored. He couldn’t do too much for the goal, with Agyemang’s header finding the corner. It was Pol Valentin who needlessly gave away the ball that led to the goal.
Hopefully Iversen’s hamstring injury isn’t too serious, but Walton can come away from this game with his head held high.
Referees becoming tiresome
From the first few minutes the game was already frustrating with Derby taking an age on all their set pieces. Up to a minute on some throw ins, with referees not understanding this is so boring to watch. But as a player or a manager you can’t make a point to them because it results in a yellow card.
It’s embarrassing to watch. Referees make decisions that are clearly wrong, and then don’t allow anyone to question it. Lewis Dobbin was clearly brought down by Matt Clarke on Saturday, with Clarke crumbling to the floor, bringing Dobbin down with him and not getting anywhere near the ball. The referee didn’t give anything and obviously Dobbin would appeal for it. Not only did he end up with a yellow but so did Stuart McCall for complaining.
Officials are making the game more and more arduous.
The pitch
This is obviously going to be a talking point for the rest of the season now. The pitch is in a state, and is not conducive to any team trying to play a passing game. It makes you nervous when we play it out from the back as it’s only a matter of time before the keeper is faced with a nasty bobble.
We’ve also got players such as Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin who love running through the middle of the pitch and opening themselves up for a shot. Devine managed some really good runs actually, and was unlucky not to find the target with a couple of his efforts. But he must be wondering how he’s going to manage on a pitch that will only deteriorate over the next few weeks.
It’s even led to Paul Heckingbottom suggesting the plans for the transfer window may differ, but he doesn’t want to have to go down that route. Speaking to the Lancashire Evening Post he said “Yeah, if you’re just trying to not make any passes on it. We can’t, because our better players have been as footballers.”
We’re usually playing on the counter attack and relying on our wing-backs getting up the pitch, but this makes it trickier and you would probably have more success going long to a target man. But we don’t have the ideal option for that. Michael Smith struggles, full stop. Daniel Jebbison and Milutin Osmajic are better facing the goal and with space in front of them.
Transfers
Either way we clearly need some additions to the squad. It felt we were at least one attacker short in the summer, but we vastly exceeded expectations with the start we have. The results we are getting in the last month or so probably reflect our performances throughout the season. In the early parts we were grinding out results and winning by one goal margins. Now we are finding it harder to score goals, and teams are working out ways to limit our counters.
Games against Norwich City, Stoke City, and Wrexham highlighted our difficulties, and were dour watches. Throw in this game, and the cup defeat to Wigan, there have been some alarming performances.
We struggle to break down teams who are happy to sit back against us. None of our six defeats this season have come against teams in the top 9. We don’t really have a plan B and there is a huge reliance on Dobbin and Devine coming up with something out of nowhere.
Zero impact from the bench
Heckingbottom made five changes during the game, but not one substitute had an effect on the game. Well Pol Valentin’s mistake led to the only goal of the game, but no one could contribute anything positively.
Thierry Small seems to have lost confidence when it comes to taking on players. Smith did show some endeavour in the dying embers of the game, but Jebbison wasn’t able to impose himself on the game. Jordan Thompson showed a bit of fight but was unlikely to do anything to help us back into the tie.
This is where we need to add that quality in the transfer window. You want to be able to bring on exciting attackers with pace that will worry the opposition. It’s looking like it will have to be loan additions again. We do have great success with this, but the fact it’s only short term just brings us back to square one eventually.
We’re obviously hoping Harrison Armstrong returns, but there has to be a cut off point for this, and surely there is alternatives in the pipeline. It’s a shame we can’t go out there and just get what we want. Instead we have to wait on other clubs making their choices, often very late in the window, and then we’re left with the scraps.
In the meantime, you can’t forget there are six league games in January. The season doesn’t pause for you to make your additions. We’re clearly worse off having lost Armstrong and moved on Will Keane and Stefan Thordarson. By the time we do bring some players in, we could be further off the pace than at any other stage of the season. A home game against Hull City, and away trips to Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town is as tough of a run as you could have. Time to grind out some results again.