Interview cliches ... which ones are you sick of hearing or you think are overused?

My absolute horror is "this is a tough place to come", followed by "learning curve".

Whatever the Handbook of Cliches to fit into an interview or press conference needs rewriting.

Any suggestions for new ones?

LAST MEETING

Preston North End 1 Cardiff City 3




LAST TIME OUT

Brentford 2 Preston North End 4



Blackburn Rovers 0 Cardiff City 0


TRANSFERS IN

Moore from Wigan
Wilson from Liverpool
Osei-Tutu from Arsenal
Ojo from Liverpool

Zero dealings from us

Meanwhile Nottingham Forest now appear to have a first team squad of 80

FORM GUIDE MAX 20

PNE 6 CARDIFF 7

Preston North End face Cardiff City in the sides’ first games after the international break, with the Lilywhites looking to build on their last game, the tremendous 4-2 win over Brentford.



The international players have returned to both clubs and the sides go head-to-head on Sunday lunchtime in front of the Sky Sports cameras, with a 12 noon kick-off.

The Bluebirds face Lancashire opposition for the second time in as many games, having drawn 0-0 with Blackburn Rovers last time out, despite being down to ten-men after the sending off of Lee Tomlin.

This is the first of seven games in 21 days for both teams before another international break and they will both be targeting a big points return, starting with three points from this encounter.

The Welsh side were the first team to visit Deepdale after the 2019/20 season resumed, back in June, and they will be looking for a similar result, when two late goals gave them the victory, but PNE will hope for a return to their home record against City, which had been very positive over a couple of decades.

Team News
Preston North End are still awaiting medical confirmation on the arrangements for Alan Browne, who was required to quarantine after one of his international team-mates tested positive for Covid-19 whilst he was away on international duty.

Daniel Johnson and Tom Barkhuizen are, however, both available again after the former recovered from injury and the latter served the reduced one-match ban for his red card against Stoke City three weeks ago.

Darnell Fisher and Louis Moult are still unavailable with hamstring and knee injuries, respectively, but Sean Maguire and Emil Riis have returned from their international escapades and are expected to both be available for the weekend.

For the visitors, Lee Tomlin misses out due to a one-match suspension after picking up two yellow cards in their goalless draw with Blackburn Rovers last time out.

Former PNE player of the year Greg Cunningham returned to EFL action after almost a year out, replacing the injured Joe Bennett recently and he could make his first run out at Deepdale since leaving the club on Sunday.


Match Officials
For the first time this season, taking charge of North End as referee on Sunday lunchtime is experienced official Keith Stroud.

He last took charge of North End for our 2-1 home win over Fulham last December, a game also played out in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Before that he also refereed of our win at Middlesbrough in March 2019 and the 1-1 draw with Swansea City back in January, his first game at Deepdale for a number of years.

In 2017/18, the Hampshire official took charge of two PNE games, both away from Deepdale, the first at Birmingham City back in September 2017, when goals from Tom Barkhuizen, Daniel Johnson and Jordan Hugill saw the side come from behind at the break to end Harry Redknapp’s tenure at St Andrews and the second, the win at Burton Albion in December the same year.

In 2016/17 his only game with the whistle for a PNE game was our loss at Brentford, whilst the previous season he also took charge of another game at Birmingham, as North End came from 2-0 down against what was then Gary Rowett’s men, with goals from Alan Browne and now Bluebirds defender Greg Cunningham earning the Lilywhites a point.

That was his second North End game in two months after he took charge of PNE’s home win over Sheffield Wednesday in February 2015, as well as PNE's last clash with a steel city side at Deepdale, 2014/15's FA Cup tie with Sheffield United. The win over the Owls was his last visit to Deepdale prior to January.

The official also refereed the Lilywhites Play-Off clash with Rotherham United in May 2014 as well as the previous season’s 3-2 home win over Ipswich Town, when Joe Garner scored a second half hat-trick as a substitute to knock the Tractor Boys out of the FA Cup at the fourth round stage.

His two previous league trips to Deepdale prior to that also saw wins, the famous 6-0 triumph over Cardiff City, which led to the Play-Offs in 2009 and a 2-1 win over West Brom the previous year, when the Lilywhites ended the game with nine men after the dismissal of both Youl Mawene and Chris Brown.

On Sunday, Keith will be assisted by Steve Meredith and Jonathan Hunt, with Dean Whitestone acting as the fourth official. It will be Keith’s fourth game of the season, having so far issued four cautions and no red cards, his last game being Bristol City’s 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest before the international break.


This is a first if I am not wrong the first time in the EFL were the two sides have played at the same ground before TV cameras with no fans in the ground, a record breaker for all the wrong reasons.

First the Transfer window has shut looks like zero action at Deepdale although there may have been moves for Nugent.

Sunday dinner time kick offs usually lack atmosphere this will be played in a vacuum, also fourth meeting on the trot that has been televised.
Last season was just after poroject re start we missed a great chance at 2-1 down to level before City closed it off with a third late doors.

First ever meeting at Deepdale was 11/2 1922 which ended in a 1-1 result
City's first victory was a 3-2 at Deepdale 9/9/1929
However they have suffered some severe hammerings since then 7-0 13/12/1930
7-1 1/9/1954
6-0 1/9/1956
9-0 7/5/1966
6-0 18/4/2009 Mark Kennedy back post GET IN

They stuffed us 2-6 29/9/1962

Personally expect a tight game although the fact we have no scored at home this season and lost both games is not ideal, expect the Sky studio to be packed with a Cardiff bias TRADITION

As off tomorrow in Tier 3 do not really suspect it's down to diseased students an thousands of Covid Mary supporters arriving in Blackpool as they have been doing for weeks, thought they were not supposed to travel maybe someone should have had a word with Glasgow coach tours.
Not happy about that.
Now they want a circuit break aka Lockdown a short one only however Sage have let it be known we should be having continual circuit breakers to coincide with school holidays.
Fairly obvious three month lockdown surpressed the virus did not eliminate it so these new curcuit breakers will do the same how many circuit breakers do we have 5/10/15/20 it just kicks the can down the road until we get a vaccine given we have been waiting 15 years for a SARS one does ot bode well for the future.
At this rate we are never getting back into grounds.

Lotsa players sidelined for Celtic in this match due to very unusual circumstances in an unusual year of COVID19. And lotsa members of the media "Rangers appreciation society" (they never go away even when their favourite team was in league 2!) "crawling out of the woodwork" and already anticipating a big win at Celtic Park that looks likely. So what can Neil Lennon do to avoid such a defeat that fate seems to be playing a hand in creating? Well first of all motivate the players and emphasise they still have a chance at home v opponents who are extreme rivals. I'm guessing that Griffiths has been given additional training to raise his fitness levels in prep for this game and in view of this mini crisis where good players are not gonna play in this match - quality striking is "key" to winning this game. Lastly, Lenny must choose his starting line up wisely and somehow protect his defence more than he'd normally do it while considering how to still win this match with the player resources at his disposal.

Hibs finally return to a full strength line up and some of Hibs players no doubt bouncing with confidence after participating in unexpected international footie activities. Hibs are currently a "top three" Scot Prem side. So here's hoping the boys push to hold that position with another victory in Dingwall. Nisbet and Doidgy should be up front as usual and I expect some Hibs goals to be scored in this fixture with Hibs defence keeping fairly solid as we gradually lead up to a gleefully anticipated Scot Cup semi-final at the end of the month. C'mon Hibs.

GGTTH

https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/matches/fo...-hibernian

Hibs doing OK particularly under the present challenging circumstances and with only 13 players to choose from.

If you do your predictions after these specified times, they will not be accepted.

Weekend games 12 pm
Midweek games 7:30 pm

Just a reminder that you can use your on any fixture, but its not compulsory!! Get it right and you will score double points but getting it wrong will result in -2 points, so the reward and risk are there for all!!

Barnet 1-2 Hartlepool
Dag & Red 0-3 Yeovil
Eastleigh 2-3 Aldershot
Notts County 4-0 Maidenhead United
Solihull Moors 1-1 Boreham Wood
Torquay 3-0 Dover
Wealdstone 2-1 Wrexham
Weymouth 0-3 King's Lynn
Woking 0-2 Halifax
Chesterfield 0-4 Stockport

League Table After Matchday 4
Lord Snoots = 50
Spireitematt = 50
Dancing = 42
Devon = 40
Amelia = 38
St Charles = 16