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LAST TIME OUT

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1 PRESTON NORTH END 0



ROTHERHAM UNITED 3 WAYNE ROONEY 0



FORM GUIDE

PNE 6  UNITED 14

Rotherham won at Derby and Middlesbrough last two away games no goals conceded

HEAD TO HEAD

First meeting at Deepdale was 17/3/1962 we won 2-0, United's first victory 22/9/1984 they cruised it 3-0 mind you virtually everybody beat us that season. Last meeting was a draw 27/10/2018.
Most famous meeting was a 3-0 victory for North End 4/5/1971 the championship of Division 3 was won that night in front of 28,000




MACS VIEW

To say the least an interesting week, signinings galore for us, seven loan players should make interesting team selection when you can onpy put 5 loanees in the squad, the Riddler hinted we may have some of them permanent by weekend, we'll see on that.
Looks like all these have been targeted by the manager makes a day from buying players from the League of Ireland.
First task beat the Millers who have a decent recod against us in recent years and who this week took the piss out of Wayne Rooney FC by making them travel twice to play the game in decent form these lads won't be easy

Garner v the Millers why not

The transfer window is finally closed, all focus is on the football and the run to the end of the season begins with North End taking on Paul Warne’s Rotherham United at Deepdale this Saturday.

And it was our visitors this weekend who took the points back in November as well, despite an equaliser – his first goal for the club – from Ryan Ledson, our hosts at the New York Stadium came away with a 2-1 win.

And they come into the game full of confidence, a bit like North End did back in the Autumn; then we had just gone to Reading and won 3-0, whilst this time it is Rotherham who had three unanswered goals in midweek, beating Wayne Rooney’s Derby County with a trio of strikes in the final quarter of an hour.

Team News
Alex Neil will give a late check on Sean Maguire, who missed the last two games, but has no new injury problems and has all of his new recruits available for selection.

Long-term casualties Patrick Bauer (Achilles), Declan Rudd (knee) and Louis Moult (ACL) are the only definitive absentees.

Paul Warne is likely to again be without goalkeeper Jamal Blackman, who is isolating, but Viktor Johansson came in against Derby County and kept a clean sheet.

He will have back on loan winger Florian Jozefzoon, who was unavailable to play against his parent club on Wednesday night, but Chieo Ogbene will be missing after going under the knife last Friday.

Match Officials
The match official for Saturday’s game is experienced referee Gavin Ward, who last took charge of a PNE game in our thrilling 3-2 win at AFC Bournemouth at the beginning of December.

Gavin, from Surrey, is in his 14th season on the EFL lists, and he has officiated the Lilywhites on ten previous occasions including last season’s 5-1 home thrashing of Barnsley and the 2-1 win over Luton Town.

He has also refereed Saturday’s visitors once this season so far, their 2-0 defeat at Watford a week after PNE’s win at the Vitality Stadium. That was one of his 16 games so far this season, having issued 40 cautions and three red cards.

He will be assisted by Nick Greenhalgh and Nik Barnard and Martin Woods will be the fourth official.

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Behind after 17 seconds

Hit the post on half time ball rebounds hits keeper on the back doesn’t go in goes for a corner 0-1 HT

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2 down

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Ched 1-2

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Goal disallowed

Millers do double

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Rotherham held on for a narrow victory over Preston to pick up their fourth win in six games and give their survival chances a boost.

The Millers went ahead courtesy of an own goal after 15 seconds when Lilywhites defender Joe Rafferty headed Freddie Ladapo's shot beyond goalkeeper Daniel Iversen.

Preston dominated the rest of the half but were unable to force an equaliser - and then went 2-0 down after 55 minutes when Ben Wiles struck.

Ched Evans pulled a goal back for the hosts 10 minutes later, but Rotherham managed to hold on for a vital win.

It was a dream start for the Millers as the retreating Rafferty misjudged Ladapo's ball forward and headed it past Iversen to register the second-fastest goal in the Championship this season.

But Preston responded well to going behind so early and Everton loanee Anthony Gordon was enjoying an influential debut, going close with a free-kick he had won himself after 20 minutes.

The Millers were indebted to goalkeeper Viktor Johansson for staying in front in the first half, with the Swede producing a string of fine saves, the best of them a flying effort to deny Jayson Molumby.

Preston picked up where they left off in the second half and were straight onto the front foot again, but could not find the equaliser and were soon made to pay.

The visitors stretched their lead against the run of play when Lewis Wing found space on the left and crossed for Wiles, who arrived to slot the ball past Iversen.

They seemed to have weathered the storm and almost grabbed a third when Wing's reverse pass found Wiles again but this time Iversen diverted it wide.

Preston eventually hit back after 65 minutes when a cross dropped kindly to Evans and the Welshman powerfully drove the ball home on the turn.

The hosts thought they had equalised with seven minutes remaining but Scott Sinclair's effort was ruled out for offside, as the Millers held on for a win that moves them out of the relegation zone and up to 20th.

Preston manager Alex Neil:

"I thought we should have won the game, we had enough chances to win the game. But we didn't take our opportunities, which is really frustrating to watch on the side of the pitch.

"You need to be clinical and deadly in those areas, but I've never seen a start to a game like that. It was frightening. The day is a sore one from me. We had so many chances, but the first goal was horrific. It's a sore one to take.

"We had a shocking start, the lads will be horrified by it. At this level we should have defended their opening goal, especially because we had every player behind the ball."

Rotherham boss Paul Warne:

"I thought Preston were easily the better side in the first half and asked us loads of questions. We were lucky to go in at half-time with a clean sheet. I don't think our performance justified a 1-0 lead at half-time.

"But we changed it a little bit and got our wing-backs to play a little bit deeper and got our foot on the ball a little bit better. And I thought in the second half we were really good.

"We got another goal and I thought our play deserved a third goal. We had to defend a bit of a siege because they threw the kitchen sink at us, so I was very happy to hear the final whistle. It's nice to be out of the bottom three, but we've got a lot of games to go