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LAST TIME OUT

HULL CITY 4 PRESTON NORTH END 0


WEST BROMWICH ALBION 4 BRISTOL CITY 1


LAST MEETING AT DEEPDALE
PRESTON NORTH END 2 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 3


TRANSFER ACTIVITY
Zohore, Austin, Sawyers for non too shabby fees
Some classy loan players Diangara being the pick however probaly the best signing the Baggies made over the summer was this man. Still have memories of that night at Wembley when the Wally with the brolley was out smarted by him standing in the pouring rain not remotely given a toss about the weather as Croatia beat England that night 3-2

A couple of weeks ago we were two points behind the Baggies lose tomorrow we would be 11 points behind them, although it was nice whilst it lasted top six should now be the target as Leeds, Fulham and the Baggies will fight it out for the top three places.
They have only lost once this season to Leeds, they do concede a few but have the good habit of scoring more than their opponents.
Fresh from Wednesday'shorror show the word is that we have player's returning hopefully a full back ortoo wouldn't go amiss, looking back on Tuesday maybe we should have played Huntington at centre back and the classy Storey at right back however that match is now gone.
Tough one this and all in view of live TV

Match Officials: West Bromwich Albion Home

For the first time this season Oliver Langford will take charge of a Preston North End fixture, having refereed three of our Championship matches in 2018/19.
His last game was the 1-0 derby day win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, when Daniel Johnson scored the winner. The ref was also the match official at the end of January, as the Lilywhites triumphed 2-0 at the Bet365 Stadium against Stoke City.

Prior to that he refereed our Carabao Cup third round tie with Middlesbrough back in September and before that it had been 12 months since he last took charge of a game at Deepdale.

The West Midlands official, prior to the aforementioned Boro game, last took charge of our clash with Cardiff City at Deepdale in September 2017, when the Lilywhites ran out 3-0 winners against Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds.
The previous season he took charge of another three North End games. His first was the live Sky victory over Wigan Athletic back in September 2016, his second, our first match of the new year, at Burton Albion and his third the goalless draw away at Barnsley in February.
He also twice took charge of the Lilywhites in 2015/16; the goalless draw against Derby County, when goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard made his debut for the club, and the April trip to Middlesbrough.

His first game in change of North End before that was the clash with Swindon at the County Ground in November 2014.

This will also be second Baggies game of the season, having officiated their 1-0 win at Middlesbrough; one of his 14 games, that have seen 54 cautions and two red cards so far.

He will be assisted by Akil Howson and Adam Crysell, with experienced Championship match official Darren Bond acting as the fourth official for the game.

Good luck

Entire Back four injured

Sorry, Mac, but the ref really likes us!

Looked iffy and I’m on that side

It's never as unjust as when it happens to your own team. This _does_ happen from time to time but I see nothing wrong with making changes so that it happens _less_.

I have a question: this was a TV game, what are the circumstances in which the incident could be judged on the video (I guess that means VAR) ?

Does it have to be a Premier League game?

There at least should be a sanction against the player, post-game, if there was no contact. Otherwise, there's no disincentive for conning the ref...

As for the players, a much improved performance which I consider to be the comeback that was needed after the last two games. A point was deserved and that is not altered by the final score.

Well done to the defenders. Hunts especially.

Preston North End 0 West Bromwich Albion 1 Austin pen?

PNE line-up: Rudd, Browne ©, Rafferty, Pearson, Huntington, Storey, Barkhuizen (Nugent 90), Johnson, Stockley, Potts (Harrop, 88), Maguire (Bodin, 90). Subs not used: Ripley, Bayliss, Ledson, Armer, Nugent, Bodin.

West Bromwich Albion line-up: Johnstone, Gibbs, Robson-Kanu (Krovinović, 84), Bartley, Ajayi, Livermore ©, Phillips (Edwards, 61), Pereira, Sawyers, Diangana (Austin, 75), Ferguson. Subs not used: Bond, Furlong, Barry, Hegazi.

Attendance: 13,015 (1,357 West Bromwich Albion fans)

Referee: Mr O Langford



Injury and flu hit an under strength North End lost too a questionable very questionable penalty after young Albion substitute Edwards collapsewd in a heap after having a COPD attack in mid stream as North End keeper came towards him, first image shows before incident, second after


Barely seemed to be any contact and too be fair to Albion fans on Socia media even they thought it was a bad decision by Dudley base Mr Langford, however Austin sent Rudd the wrong way and that was that.
North End's patched up defence had Paul Huntington making his first league appearance for a long while and too his credit thought he had an excellent game and his non selection at Hull last week now does seem a very strange decision.
We seemed to give Albion too much respect in the first half standing off them, Phillips curling one narrowly wide and forcing Rudd to make a good save, Bartley should really have scored from close in from a Phillips free kick when he fired wide.
Meagre stuff at the other end although Maguire trying to beat Sam from the dead ball line would have been epic if it had gone in.
Level at the break, we were much more at it in the second half closing Albion down began to get in good positions and Johnstones'save from Johnson was top draw from the resulting corner Albion failed to clear the ball and Browne's goalbound effort cannoned to safety.
Both teams pressed for the winner with Gibbs for Albion getting into good positions but as we headed to a deserved point enter Mr Langford who apart from the iffy decision at the end had a decent gamee.
Very cruel but on we go.
Preston boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"When it's a last-minute goal you concede, it certainly makes it worse that it's a really contentious decision as well. If it was a little bit of quality from them, it would be more palatable.

"It certainly wasn't a vintage performance from us but we set up in a manner that I felt gave us the best chance of getting a win or getting something from the game, because we had so many players missing.

"I thought we were really comfortable in the second half, I don't think they had a shot on target but then the penalty decision swings the game.

"It doesn't look like a penalty to me. For how hard they worked, and how little space and time they gave some really good players in Albion's team, I thought we deserved something from the match."

West Brom manager Slaven Bilic told BBC WM 95.6:

"In the first half we were very dominant, we just lacked quality in the final third and I told the guys just raise the tempo and be patient.

"In the second half Preston improved and had their moments but the game changed in the final 20 minutes and we camped in their half of the pitch, and if any team deserved to win it was us.

"You can't imagine how big a result this is for us because Preston is a very difficult place to come and play."