It sounds as though Ian Evatt is out for the season ....... at best. The suggestion is this injury could be the end of his career,which I'm sure we'd all be very sorry about.
He was a mainspring of our revival. His form was good and his influence on those around him was very positive. Internally our only replacement is young Marshall Willock and he's obviously long-term. Maguire, Dylan Hand, Conor Fowler and Jay Smith, however well they develop, they all seem destined to partner an Evatt, rather than become one.

There's a suggestion we might bring in a Notts County player who can't make their team, which fails to inspire me.

I must admit the number of players we are losing either forever, or long periods of time, is beginning to sound like a death knell.

My suggested signings are Ryan Astles of Chester and Gallifuoco from Dover, who is really more of a Sam Hird. Since being released by Wigan Astles has never merited a fee, and moved from Rhyl to Northwich to Chester, where several lower league clubs are taking a keen interest. He wouldn't be free now, but our advantage would be that he'd know he was going to get a game, which at 23 he'll need.

Maybe you'd rather play safer with a back number at a league club, who needs another chance?

So the lords of football Sky decree that instead of travelling to South Wales on a Saturday we have to go on a Friday night for our annual defeat at the Cardiff City Stadium. This is the third time we have played the Bluebirds on a Friday night, won one 1-0 Mawene scored the other was round about the time the wheels were coming of for Paul Bad Apples Simpson, we lost that one 4-1 although might have been oh so different if we had got a penalty after Nugent was taken out by City goal keeper David Forde.
Tomorrow night takes on a bit more significance considering City's last two results and the corresponding hammering City took in the first game at Deepdale.
Colin considered we were well up for the original game and he would be looking forward to the return at Cardiff, given the last twio results he may not be as confident but after Tuesday at Barnsley he may not have a lot too worry about.
City have been in the top three for most of the season, considering they are like us not full of top quality names it shows that Warnock has done well to get them so high in the table, whether he can keep them there is another matter, may need to spend a bit of cash to strengthen. Although he gets grief don't mind Warnock says it as it is.

Bit of Cardiff history

Cardiff City Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in the city of Cardiff, Wales that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.

Founded in 1899 as Riverside A.F.C., the club changed its name to Cardiff City in 1908 and joined the English football league system in 1910, competing in the Southern Football League before joining the Football League in 1920. They are the only club from outside England to have won the FA Cup, doing so in 1927. They have also reached three other cup finals in English competitions, the 1925 FA Cup Final against Sheffield United, the 2008 FA Cup Final against Portsmouth and the 2012 Football League Cup Final against Liverpool, suffering defeat on each occasion, and have won the Welsh Cup on 22 occasions, making them the second most successful team in the competition's history behind Wrexham. The team's longest period in the top-tier of English football came between 1921 and 1929 and they have spent seven seasons in the top-flight since this period, the most recent being in 2013–14, being relegated after a single season.

Since 1908, the club's home colours have been blue and white, leading to a nickname of The Bluebirds, with the exception of a period between 2012 and 2015 when the club's owner, Vincent Tan, rebranded the club and changed the home colours to red. They reverted to their traditional blue in January 2015.[1] Cardiff play their home games at the Cardiff City Stadium, after moving from Ninian Park in 2009, and have long-standing rivalries with nearby clubs Swansea City, known as the South Wales derby, and Bristol City, known as the Severnside derby.

Having never lost at Barnsley go to the other extreme have never won in South Wales at either Cardiff or soon to be championship side Swansea, time to put that right tomorrow.
Setting off at 12.30 tomorrow obviously going the scenic route down the Cambrian coast.

We need to change a few for tomorrow, would really like Harrop to start,given the lack of right backs the lesser spotted Vermijl might play however did cut rather a lonely figure on Tuesday being the only one of those that travelled not used. No idea whether Clarke or Robinson were injured or just rested. Cannot see a lot of purist football being played mind you we've got the Anti Christ of football on Monday, Pulis, tough game tomorrow get anything from it will be a bonus.

PNE Team News: Cardiff City

Manager Alex Neil will have a number of selection headaches going into Friday night’s live Sky Sports clash with Cardiff City in the Welsh capital.

Following the Boxing Day draw with Barnsley, there are doubts over both Calum Woods and Paul Gallagher, who were both withdrawn with injuries.

Skipper Tom Clarke missed the trip to Oakwell and will need to be assessed before the cross-border fixture, as will Callum Robinson, who was also unavailable, not having any involvement in a game for the very first time so far this season – the only outfield player up to that point who had been involved in every game played.

Greg Cunningham, who returned to the bench against Paul Heckingbottom’s side could be thrown into the deep end for his first game since August, having returned to training earlier this month following a reattachment of his hamstring.
Darnell Fisher remains a serious doubt, having missed the last few games and is expected to join Tommy Spurr and Josh Earl (both knee) and Sean Maguire (hamstring) on the sidelines for the encounter with Neil Warnock’s men.

Louis Moult will complete his move from Motherwell over the weekend, but will not be eligible to play until the FA Cup third round trip to Wycombe Wanderers a week on Saturday.

Stat Attack: Cardiff City

We play our last league game of 2017 in the Welsh capital as we make our fifth visit to the Cardiff City Stadium since it opened in 2009, with one win, one draw and two defeats to date.

The stadium is of course across the road from Ninian Park and so both home and away fans have not had to alter their travel arrangements, unlike so many other new grounds.

Prior to 2009, we made 39 visits to Ninian Park and all told we have returned to Deepdale with points on 23 occasions, from 11 wins and 12 draws.

Goals have been less plentiful in this fixture than the return matches at Deepdale, with an aggregate of 124 compared to 156 in Lancashire. We have both won (1954) and lost (1972) by 5-2; after the 1954 match, we met again a week later at Deepdale and won 7-1. A good start to the season for one club and a disastrous one for the other!

Peter Sayer and Kurt Nogan are just two players to have appeared for both clubs but they also share Cardiff as their birthplace, in 1955 and 1970 respectively.
Peter moved north from Brighton in 1980, having started his career at Ninian Park. He played for North End for four years before joining Chester and after retiring he was landlord of the Blue Bell pub in Church Street for many years.

Kurt Nogan made the journey west from Burnley in 1997 with a reputation as a goalscorer and he hit the net 31 times in 116 games before joining his hometown club in 2000.

Other players with both clubs include Andy Saville, Mick Martin, Tony Philliskirk and of course Eoin Doyle.

On This Date
Patrick Agyemang made the last of his 135 appearances in a North End shirt on this date in 2007.

Signed from Gillingham three years previously, Paddy has the rare distinction of playing over 100 games for the club, but the majority coming from the bench. He started 61 games, but came on from the bench 74 times in all and he scored 21 goals before joining Queens Park Rangers.

We made only our second ever appearance in the FA Cup on this date in 1883. Having overcome one Bolton side in Great Lever the previous month, we faced Eagley at Deepdale and showed we were adapting to football rather than rugby as our winter game by coming out 9-1 victors.
This was the first of three occasions when Fred Dewhurst scored four goals in the FA Cup for us, in addition to his hat-trick in the record win over Hyde four years later.

Last Five Trips to Cardiff City
Cardiff City 2 (Whittingham (pen), Zohore) Preston North End 0, 31st January 2017
Cardiff City 2 (Pilkington (2 pens)) Preston North End 1 (Robinson), 27th February 2016
Cardiff City 1 (Keogh) Preston North End 1 (Tonge), 4th December 2010
Cardiff City 1 (Burke) Preston North End 0, 5th December 2009
Cardiff City 2 (Johnson, Chopra (pen)) Preston North End 0, 6th December 2008



Ref Watch: Cardiff City


For the second time the season, our match official for Friday night’s live TV encounter at the Cardiff City Stadium, sees Isle of Wight official James Linington taking charge of North End.

His first PNE game of this season was the Lilywhites’ 2-1 win at Hull City back in September and overall this season he has refereed 24 games, issuing 78 cautions and five red cards, having also overseen Cardiff City once, in their goalless draw with Derby County back in September.

Last season the referee made his first visit ever to Deepdale for the clash with Wolves back in November and was then the referee in the away game at Derby County back in March.

The season before he was referee of the PNE game at Ashton Gate, when Greg Cunningham scored the winner against his former club and that was his third game in charge of PNE.
The other time he refereed North End was another game in the south of England, when the Lilywhites won 1-0 at Gillingham in the League One promotion season, courtesy of Paul Huntington’s goal in his first start of the season.

James will be assisted by Neil Davies and Steven Meredith, with Brett Huxtable the fourth official.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 30TH DECEMBER 3:00PM KICK OFF

v

LAST MATCH

So our first match without Carlos and we get our attacking zest back, 3 goals, 3 points and a clean sheet thanks to Wildsmith. Bullen tweaked the formation into a 433/diamond hybrid with Joao, Rhodes & Hooper all starting and it paid dividends with Rhodes & Joao getting on the score sheet. Reach added another with a cracking finish. We totalled 19 attempts on goal and 8 on target, I think we can safely say that wouldn't have happened if Carlos was still in charge. Of course it is only 1 game but it was like a breathe of fresh air compared to how most of the season had gone.



THE MATCH

Another away trip beckons and I would expect a much tougher test as we travel down south to take on Brentford. Brentford had a slow start to the season but have been improving in the last couple of months and now sit in 12th place looking to mount a playoff push. We beat them at Hillsborough earlier in the season and would take that again although a draw would be a good result especially with Burton coming up at Hillsborough on New Years Day.



CURRENT FORM (BETTER)

OWLS          -                    

BREN           -                        

WHOS THE BASTARD IN THE BLACK

DARREN ENGLAND
Nick Greenhalgh and Jonathan Hunt
Fourth Official: Simon Hooper

THE TEAM

Hooper and Van Aken were injured at Forest so they might miss out. Venancio could replace Van Aken, while Abdi, Jones or Butterfield could replace Hooper. Will Bullen stick to same formation v Forest or tweak it again?

Wildsmith, Palmer, Venancio, Loovens, Fox, Reach, Hutch, Wallace, Abdi, Rhodes, Joao

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Joao - Owlkev

TOTAL SHOTS X TOTAL POSSESSION

616 - Owlkev

BML

Maddix                      
Peiowl                    
Imre                  
Stateside                
Jacko          
Owlkev          
Southey          
SCO        
Towninjustonce        
Washington        
Wereham  

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Barnsley v Reading
Birmingham v Leeds
Hull v Fulham
Middlesbrough v Villa
Forest v Sunderland

DAAHH - Owlkev

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Empty................for now

KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC




The thread awaits the Meggo of Statesides choice.

Is it any wonder that there is such a gap in the Prem?

£75m for Virgil Van Dyke and he's a defender ffs.

Thats about 3 years transfer budget for clubs like us.

I am resurrecting the annual general sports predictions.

January

Snooker - Masters
Tennis - Australian Open Men's Champion

February

Winter Olympics - Men's Curling Gold Medallists
Winter Olympics - Women's Curling Gold Medallists
Winter Olympics - How many GB Gold Medals?
Football - League Cup winners

March

RU - Six Nations - Men's Winner
RU - Six Nations - Women's Winner
University Boat Race Winner (men's)

April

Commonwealth Games - number of England gold medals
Football - Checkatrade Trophy Winner
Snooker - World Champion

May

Football - Women's FA Cup Winner
Football - EPL Top 4
Football - FA Cup Winner
Football - Scottish FA Cup Winner
Football - Champions League Winner

June

Tennis - French Open Men's Champion

July

Tennis - Wimbledon Men's Champion
Tennis - Wimbledon Women's Champion
Cycling - TdF Winner
Football - World Cup winner
Golf - The Open Winner

August

Rugby League - Challenge Cup Winner

September

Tennis - US Open Men's Champion
Golf - Ryder Cup Winners

October

Rugby League - Super League Winner

November 

Tennis - Davis Cup Winners
Snooker - UK Championship Winner

December

Football - Town's league position in what league on Boxing Day

i got slated in an earlier post for saying Messi aint it
well he aint
right about now
that accolade must go to Kevin De Bruyne
just how good is this guy?
love watching him play
droooooolllllllll
the guy is superb

Reading this latest revelation re the 'conveyor belt of royal gong-giving', this one really irritates and there must be a generation of students who view this con man/political opportunist/Tory stooge as deserving nothing after his dreadful period of leading the Libdem party 'down the plughole' and not one Libdem stood to 'bring him down' and get him out the position asap. When one looks closely at the list of bestowed Libdem 'losers', one can perceive they must be one of the greatest collectors of 'prize gongs' in politics and like nothing more than collecting more!! Indeed I learnt a lot in 2014, Scotland's referendum year, when this political party 'flew its true unionist colours' with other allied shameless political people to try and thwart Scottish self-determination. They will shamelessly use any ploy to achieve their aim and assume we are all fickle and will soon 'forget aboot it'! Well the 'tuition fee scandal' taught them a harsh lesson but these are shameless people I am referring to. My current main Libdem target up here is a woman/MP named Swinson who I watched ripping into Scotland's credentials to be independent - English accent and all and one of many!! She subsequently lost her parliamentary seat to the SNP's John Nicolson! Then, years later, she won it back this year under highly questionable circumstances that covered excessive over funding of her political campaign that has been randomly mentioned in criticisms of that Renfrew success!! I believe she did cheat and was complicit with her own Libdem party as well as with other unionist allies!! So far, she has not been challenged enough on this issue and is still just another shameless political opportunist who will stoop to any low measure to gain an advantage.

Well we've hardly got a team to scratch together, they are massively inconsistent, but even though he must be 94 George Porter worries me and a Jordan Bowery goal would be an intervention from the TARDIS.

It seems they need to get a goal to become at all confident in themselves.

We are good at conceding a goal to teams who need one, so we might be their match made in heaven.

We need to win to stay where we are. They need to win to avoid falling apart completely.

I think the EFL would be poorer for losing either of us, but it could on track to lose BOTH.

WHISPER it quietly but I'll watch the racing from Kempton for as long as I can before finding out the score. WHISPER IT QUIETLY.

I can't remember that happening before but after the  Sheffield Wednesday v Middlesbrough match BOTH managers have been sacked!!!

It seems there's just no pleasing some people.

Feel sorry for Boro as not only did they win the game but, if rumours are to be believed, they now face life under Pulis who is favourite for the job.
At least he can't get Boro relegated from the Prem.

BREAKING: Sky Sports News understand Middlesbrough are in talks with Tony Pulis about becoming their new manager #SSN