[themaclad]

STOKE CITY
DEEPDALE 5/4/2025 1500HRS

I missed this one last season had a toe nail removed two days before the game.

https://www.stokecityfc.com/

MANAGER

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FORM GUIDE



PNE 6 STOKE 7

BANGING THEM IN



The Fitness Test

North End will once again be without Ali McCann, Brad Potts, Freddie Woodman and Jack Whatmough for this one.

There are, however, no fresh injury concerns with everyone coming through Wednesday night seemingly unscathed.

Sam Greenwood will be able to return to contention after serving his two-match suspension.

The Potters

Stoke City arrive at Deepdale just two points above the bottom three and with work to do in the final month of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.

Their survival hopes have been boosted by recent victories over Blackburn Rovers and Queens Park Rangers, and they have a crucial double header coming up within the next week too against Luton Town and Cardiff City.

Mark Robins – appointed manager in January – will be looking to use all his experience to guide the Potters to safety.

The Officials

Referee: Farai Hallam
Assistant Referees: Mark Dwyer and Hugh Gilroy
Fourth Official: Jeremy Simpson

Farai Hallam will take charge of his first PNE fixture this weekend.

Hallam, who has worked for the FA in different capacities over the years, including as their Senior Referee Officer, officiated his first EFL fixture in May 2023.

This season, he has refereed in the Championship and the three tiers below, dishing out 102 yellow cards and two reds in 33 games.

MACS VIEW

Sill need a couple of wins to ensure safety, this lot won't be easy under Mr Robins, apparently bringing 4000 odd folk to sing Tom Jones songs to us.

Saturday in the sun at Deepdale the joy

[themaclad]

Preston North End 1 Kessler-Hayden Stoke City 1 Baker pen

Attendance: 17,341 (4,054 Stoke City fans).

Referee: Mr F Hallam.


If Stoke had have won this doubt if anyone woud have complained, with Hull winning we have a 7 point gap between us and the zone of doom.
City used the conditions better than us, getting the ball in the air and letting the stiff breeze do it's job, the pitch looked better than it probably was and generally the biggesr Stoke side bossed the game.
Could really have been ahead City went close on a couple of times with both wingers Junho and Manhoff causng us issues. A great defence tackle by Storey saved the day as City cuts swathes through our dfence.
Then out of the blue, we lead, only thing Greenwood did was find KKH, who went on a run hit a tame shot which somehow trickled in, his back somersault was impressive.
A good move down the left wing, ball to back stick Baker sliding in put it wide .
City dominated straight from the second half kick off, although in truth didn't give Cornell many problems. Major let off, scramble in the area, Lindsay just about cleared from the line and the second phase saw Cornell make a brilliant one handed save.
Goal was coming though, soft penalty decision, push by Lindsay but it is a penalty.
Baker's power beat Cornell who went the right way.
We woke up a it after this but Stoke still looked the more likely, luckily just about hung on.


HECK

Paul Heckingbottom reinforced that he doesn’t want his North End side to “limp home” during the end of season run-in, following the Stoke City draw.

PNE got ahead against the Potters thanks to Kaine Kesler-Hayden’s first goal for the club in the tenth minute of the game.

The visitors came out the stronger of the two in the second half, though, and got a leveller through Lewis Baker with a quarter of an hour left.

Hecky said: “I’m frustrated with lots of things. I'm disappointed with the decision for the penalty. We could have easily got three points, but in terms of our performance, I felt we didn't play with the edge that we want to play with, at the start of the second half in particular.

“I was happy with the first half and wanted more but then the messages were just lost straight away at the start of the second half. That's why I wanted to make changes, to make the point. There's no way I want to limp home in the next six games. We want to win games.

“We want to play as well as we possibly can and today we didn't. I felt at the start of the second half, Stoke won the duels and then we let ourselves down. We weren't good enough with the ball and those players are far better than what we've shown today. We've seen it this season.

“We need to be able to do that against teams who are going to throw everything at us because they're fighting to stay in the league. That's how I saw the game.”

Ahead of the home tie against the Potters, the manager said how important it was for his side to end the campaign strongly, aware of how the club ended the previous campaign.

With six games still to go, 18 points to play for, and Cardiff City next to Deepdale on Tuesday night, the North End gaffer knows what has to happen between now and the final day.

Hecky said: “That's what I'll be thinking about tonight, not allowing that to happen and not seeing any more of those performances. We’re playing against teams who are going to come and fight. They're going to have real determination about them and throw everything at us because simply that is what is at stake.

“We have to show the same thing or the players have to be brave enough and good enough with the ball to take that thing out the game. We were neither for that 30-minute spell.

“Cardiff, Hull, Plymouth – they'll all be the same. That’s all I’m bothered about, us getting better. The message in there is there's no way I want to limp home. Anyone who's happy where we are, 14th, is probably not going to be on the journey with us. It's that simple. We'll learn a lot in these next six games.”

Stoke manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"I think we were brave. I thought we were the better team throughout the game. I thought we had the first real opportunity when Milly [Manhoef] went through and took one touch too many.

"If he can get that out from under his feet and finish then I think he scores but I'm not going to criticise the decision-making too much although it's the thing that cost us a little bit.

"We went behind to a rubbish goal which ended up taking a deflection and trickling into the back of the net.

"It's really disappointing to concede like that but knew we were in the game. It looked like we needed that little bit of impetus which we didn't get."

[themaclad]