Preston North End made it four defeats in a row without scoring a goal, as they were on the end of a 4-0 thrashing from Middlesbrough.
Former player Alan Browne gave the home side the lead after a bright opening few minutes from North End. However it was all one way traffic after that, with mistakes galore, and heads well and truly down.
Preston have now suffered their two biggest defeats under Paul Heckingbottom in the space of a week.
Tone deaf message before kick off
2,000 fans made the trip to Teeside for an early kick off on a cold January day. A time of year where money may be tight, and weather can be treacherous, it takes a dedicated fan to spend their time attending a game like this.
Which is what made the timing of a post from Preston North End quite unbelievable. On the Saturday morning the club’s official Twitter/X account posted a message reminding fans to behave correctly in the away end, and not sing any bad songs, or run on the pitch.
This has come in a week where Milutin Osmajic has headbutted someone which will see him miss his 20th game in the last 18 months. In a week where coach Peter Murphy was sent off for being unable to control his anger on the bench. In a season where Heckingbottom has been fined and suspended numerous times.
Maybe they should look in house, before lecturing fans ahead of a game. What a way to dampen spirits and atmosphere before a ball has even been kicked. We then saw a second red card of the week as Jordan Storey was sent off for bringing down Tommy Conway.
All this, did result in the fans singing ‘We’ve had enough’.
The fans aren’t the problem here. Focus efforts elsewhere.
Walton wobbler
The importance of Daniel Iversen was underlined again on Saturday. It’s not easy being a number two keeper, and you have to be ready to come into a team and perform straight away. Jack Walton was solid enough in his first game against Derby County, before being on the end of a heavy defeat against Hull City.
The game against Middlesbrough couldn’t have gone much worse for him though. The first two goals went through his legs, but the defending did not help him at all. The third goal, saw him needlessly play the ball out to Lewis Gibson who was under pressure and then panicked and allowed his pockets to be picked. Gibson has looked terrible since returning from his injury. Perhaps not 100% ready, but with Andrew Hughes out and now Storey suspended, there will be further issues.
The fourth goal saw a tame free kick fumbled, and Conway could add his second of the game.
It was a really poor display from Walton. We still have no timeline on Iversen’s injury, and you feel the defence are massively missing the Dane’s presence as well.
Lewis offered nothing
Jamal Lewis has looked stable enough in the side since signing but on Saturday he was horrendous. He couldn’t win any tackles or battles. He didn’t know what to do with the ball, often just sending it out of play. He didn’t have any bursts forward or try and beat his man. He was embarrassed by Alan Browne who we all know and love, but he is not a right winger. Yet he had the easiest battle of his career.
Browne easily nudged Lewis out of the way for the first goal, and had the freedom of the pitch for the 90 minutes. The gaps in defence were laughable, which brings me on to a topic which has been covered time and time again, but is still a huge frustration.
Change the formation!
Why do we have to persist with this five at the back set-up? It’s meant to be defensively stable but as seen today and against Hull it’s losing it’s effect. Lewis Gibson and Odel Offiah were caught out of position too many times, leaving Storey as the only man back on occasions.
It was so easy to play against, and was similar to our last 4-0 defeat at the Riverside under Ryan Lowe two seasons ago. The opposition knows to play balls over the top, or with pace through the middle and we can’t deal with it. Gibson was so far up the pitch at times, which is great if you can manage to do something with the ball. But most of the time it was lost and then we couldn’t get back into position in time.
Playing five at the back limits what we can do from an attacking point of view as well. The wing-backs are easily pinned back by opposition wingers and then we have to play narrowly. This relies on the central midfielders to create chances.
Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin can do that but they need assistance. Ben Whiteman, Ali McCann and Jordan Thompson aren’t creative, and our strikers feed on scraps.
We haven’t scored in four games now, and you do wonder where the next one will come from. Again we need more from Whiteman and McCann here – 17 goals in 363 Preston games between them.
Let’s at least have a plan B. Get some wingers in the squad, play a back four and look for overlaps out wide. It’s more exciting to watch and it’s tougher to defend against. So much is being asked of our wing-backs and mistakes are easily punished.
Where do we go from here?
Devine and Dobbin must be losing interest in this situation as well. They were enjoying themselves early on, but they must be annoyed with a few aspects now. Firstly the pitch they have to play on at Deepdale. Secondly the lack of quality around them. Thirdly, they might have thought with the position they had helped get Preston in, that there may have been other additions this month to help boost chances of a play-off push. That is looking less and less likely now.
If there was the slightest of chances that we could keep these players longer than their current deals, then these are diminishing every week.
The same must be said for any potential incomings, including the return of Harrison Armstrong. The wheels have well and truly fallen off for Preston North End. It’s less than three weeks since a morale boosting victory over Bristol City that made a few sit up and really consider the club as promotion candidates.
It’s been disastrous ever since then. Preston have a reputation for falling away towards the tail end of the season, but now we are doing it at the halfway point. So much seems to be going wrong on and off the pitch. The board probably sat there smugly at the start of January, thinking they didn’t need to do anything, as what’s the worst that could happen?
Well we are quickly finding out, and the club will continue to disappoint the loyal fans who can see the problems with the club right in front of them. We’ve seen the same story time and time again. The only difference with this one is that hope is fading away earlier than usual.
But at least the club are focusing on the important things. Don’t sing any naughty songs please.