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Games at Easter come around faster than tears at an Australian Sand paper convention, arriving at Deepdale are Derby County in what quite easily be termed a six pointer. The Rams seem to be having their traditional end of season self destruction with the latest body blow being a capitulation against Sunderland by 4-1 which even manager Gary Rowett said was a bag of shite.
Not saying Sunderland had to work for any of the goals all gift wrapped with loving care by the Rams defence.
Cruising at Christmas time looked to be odds on for an automatic place however currently sixth two points ahead of us. A win for us tomorrow will put us in the play offs albeit because we kick off at dinner time for an Easter treat for Sky viewers.
Although having a torrid time they have a decent squad although when it comes to this time in the season they seem to lack a little bit of bottle.
Will have to keep an eye on Vydra who has 19 for the season, may even be a return to Deepdale for the man Nugent, decent midfield Huddlestone a class act, they paid decent money for Johnson but when push comes to shove the Rams seem to have great problems getting over the line.
Neil has indicated there will be changes wouldn't think it will be drastic changes, personally would like to see Harrop start deserves his chance however would like us to take our chances don't shoot don't score have a pop lads.
We have not beaten the Rams since we returned to this level and they have won both games at Deepdale.
First goal crucial tomorrow.

Stat Attack: Derby County

For the fourth and final time this season, we welcome a fellow founder member of the Football League back to Deepdale.

In the case of Derby County, this is their 52nd league visit and they are seeking their 12th win here.

Three of those 11 previous victories have come from the last three meetings between our two clubs and we have not beaten the Rams at home since 2008, a goalless draw in 2009 starting our winless run.

In our 2-1 defeat on New Year’s Day 2011, Callum Davidson’s injury time penalty was our 100th goal in the fixture, but scant consolation for losing all three points.

In our first four meetings here, between 1888 and 1892, we scored 19 goals without conceding any, following scorelines of 5-0 (twice), 6-0 and 3-0. In 1947, we recorded the only 7-4 result in our history when we overcame Derby in an end to end game.
Angus Morrison scored a hat-trick and still ended up on the losing side but he must have made an impression of the North End hierarchy as he moved to Deepdale a year later. Willie McIntosh, Andy McLaren and Bill Shankly all scored twice and Bobbie Beattie was our other scorer that day.

Archie Gemmill was lured away from Deepdale by Derby manager Brian Clough in 1970 and of course he went on to gain many honours with both County and their close rivals Nottingham Forest, as well as appearing for his native Scotland in the 1978 World Cup. His son Scot later spent a short period on loan with North End.

Our first ever loan player joined us from the Baseball Ground in 1972 but only made two appearances for the Liliywhites. Roger Davies regularly commentates on Derby games for the local BBC Radio station and has made more appearances in the press box than he did on the pitch!

Jonathan Clark joined us from Derby in 1981 and later became our youngest ever manager when he took temporary charge aged only 27 after Brian Kidd was sacked. Jon started his career with Manchester United and made over 130 appearances for North End before moving to Derby in 1986.

On This Date
Current Exeter City winger and former North Ender Lee Holmes is 31 today. Lee started his career with Derby, having been born in Burton on Trent in 1987 and he moved to Southampton before being signed by Graham Westley in 2012. He spent two years at Deepdale, scoring six goals in 75 appearances before joining the Grecians in 2014.

Carlo Nash made the first of his 94 consecutive appearances between the sticks for PNE when he made his debut at home to Gillingham in 2005. At the end of that season, he was a member of the side beaten by West Ham in the Championship playoff final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. Luckily for North End, Carlo’s positional sense was better than his grasp of geography when he joined Wigan to be closer to London!

Fellow goalkeeper John Barton played his last game for the Lilywhites in 1966, over seven years after his debut. John found himself playing second fiddle to record appearance holder Alan Kelly senior and so he only managed 54 matches in his eight seasons at the club.

Two years ago, 6,000 North Enders filled the Darwen End at Ewood Park to see us overcome Blackburn Rovers thanks to Joe Garner’s penalty and Jordan Hugill’s volleyed strike.
We have played 18 previous league games at home on this date and we have won 14 of those, drawing three times and losing only once, to Bury in 1977. Amongst our results are 4-0 wins over Bradford City and Swansea Town and 4-1 victories over Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield United.

Last Five Games At Deepdale
Preston North End 0 Derby County 1 (Forsyth), 16th August 2016
Preston North End 1 (Johnson) Derby County 2 (Martin, 2), 12th September 2015
Preston North End 1 (Davidson (pen)) Derby County 2 (Porter, 2), 1st January 2011
Preston North End 0 Derby County 0, 8th December 2009
Preston North End 2 (St. Ledger, Parkin) Derby County 0, 26th December 2008



Ref Watch: Derby County

Making his second visit to Deepdale this season, but his first since our opening day fixture, is match official Tony Harrington.

Tony took charge of the Lilywhites’ 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in Alex Neil’s first competitive game in charge of the club, but has not been the referee of a PNE game since.

Last season he also took charge of two North End games, the 1-1 draw away at Nottingham Forest and the thrilling 4-2 win over Brentford at Deepdale.

Tony, who is now in his seventh year on the EFL list has also been to PR1 on a number of previous occasions in the past, including the 2014/15 penalty win against Oldham Athletic in the JPT and the club’s last two home league games against Notts County, including a 2-0 win over the Magpies at Deepdale in February 2014.
This will be his third game in charge of Derby this season, having officiated their Boxing Day goalless draw at Hull City and their six-goal thriller at Reading in February, when the two sides shared the half dozen goals and the Rams ended the game with ten men after the sending off of Chris Baird.

Those are two of Tony’s 30 games so far this season, in which he has issued 107 cautions and sent off just five players, including the County defender.

He will be joined by assistants Mark Dwyer and Mark Russell, whilst Jeremy Simpson will be the fourth official

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Opposition View: Derby County
County manager Gary Rowett pulled no punches after his side’s 4-1 home defeat to Sunderland on Friday night.

The Rams boss spoke to his club’s official website, dcfc.co.uk, after the heavy loss to the Black Cats and found very little to be positive about.

“It was an awful, awful night,” said the former Derby player. “We have to take a long hard look at ourselves.

“I am not going to defend it.

“I can accept it if a team have come and played us off the park and Sunderland are fighting for their lives, but the goals were woeful goals.
“Our defensive display was really, really poor. I can’t accept that and I also can’t defend it. All the people that doubt us, I have to say that all those people at the moment are right, we have to improve and we have to do it fast.”

And he struggled to put his finger on why his team did not perform to the standards he sets: “I can’t work out why,” he continued. “I will stand up here and take responsibility. I will look at the decisions I take and if the buck stops with me, then so be it.

“I am brave enough to take it on the chin and I have just said that to the players. I said I would go out and do 15 interviews while they stayed inside in the warmth, but they need to take a good look at themselves.

“When things don’t go well you sometimes see the characters of players and tonight I think we saw how some of the players react when things don’t go well, because that’s when you really need people to step up.”

And with Monday’s game at Deepdale, again in front of the Sky Sports cameras to come, Rowett is expecting a reaction from his team.

“Whilst we don’t deserve to be in the top six, we still are and we need to do something about it, because we know the results haven’t been good or enough to keep us in there.

“We will get that opportunity at Preston.

“I will have to have a really good look at the team, because I have some big decisions to make.
“It’s an interesting one tonight because it is not just the work rate and the desire, but tonight at times our quality was really poor and that’s sometimes the thing that gets tested when you are under pressure; that’s the thing that gets tested when you are 1-0 down, our ability to move the ball and pass.

“I can’t defend the display, I wouldn’t even try to, I will only apologise to the fans because I’ve been coming to Pride Park as a supporter, as a manager and as a player and I haven’t seen too many displays that have been as poor as that.”
North End boss Alex Neil is looking forward to facing Play-Off rivals Derby County at Deepdale on Monday afternoon.
After both sides suffered Good Friday defeats, the Rams arrive in PR1 with both sides knowing that with the early kick-off, in front of the Sky Sports cameras, would see them inside the top six when the rest of the division get underway at 3pm.

Home view

After the schedule of bank holiday games had been completed on Friday evening, not a lot had changed in the table, with just two points now covering six teams chasing two Play-Off spots as the manager explained when he spoke to iFollow ahead of the clash with County.

“Not a lot has changed, not a lot of damage has been done, but equally we can look at [Friday’s game] as a missed opportunity, because if we had won on Friday, we would obviously be in a better position,” he said.

“But we can’t dwell on it. In the game I didn’t think we played that poorly, and the scoreline isn’t reflective of the game, however, we are disappointed we didn’t get something from the game.

“We have analysed it, we have chatted it through with the lads – there were one or two things we didn’t do well enough and we need to make sure we eradicate those for the next seven matches and now we look forward to Derby and we know how big a game it is.”
Whilst many eyes would have been on the Rams’ game against Sunderland on Friday evening, the gaffer feels that relying on others to do the Lilywhites a favour is not something he wants to be doing.

“You are at a stage now where if you are watching too many games and worrying about what the opposition is doing, it means you are not doing well enough,” he continued.

“What we want to do is take care of our own business, win our own games and see how the chips land after that round of fixtures.

“What we have to concern ourselves with is that we have seven games remaining, we have put ourselves in a fantastic position in terms of challenging and the last thing we want to do is to make all our hard work this season go to waste.”

He feels that Easter Monday fixture is a game between two differing sides, but that the winner will be the one that copes with the occasion the best.

“Their squad is an experience one in comparison to ours and our squad has been assembled for very little and theirs has cost a lot!

“I think there are different expectancy levels and different pressures when that is involved and I think that can sometimes take its toll.

“I don’t think anyone would have expected their last result before the game started, but it just shows you how competitive this division is. With seven games to go, you are playing teams who are fighting for their lives at the bottom end of the table, teams who are trying to get in the Play-Offs, teams who are trying to get automatic promotion and it just becomes really tough. If you dip your performances levels by ten per cent against anyone in this league, then you are going to lose.

“The game on Monday is going to be about who handles the pressure, who deals with the pressure and who can perform under the pressure as much as anything else.
“There is very little fear in our squad. We have been the team that has been chasing for quite a while now, so we haven’t got anything in our grasp at the moment that we can let go of, we are still hunting and chasing down the pack.

“We are not fearful of anything; we are in a really good position, we have worked really hard to get here and we want to try and go make the most of it.

“When you look at Derby, they are very different, they have spent a lot of money, Gary has come in and got them into a good position, but they have struggled of late in terms of results and they will be looking to try and put that right and their fans will be expecting them to put that right.

“For us, we just have to enjoy it and make sure we do as well as we can,” he added.

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Preston North End 0 Derby County 1

PNE: Maxwell, Fisher, Huntington, Davies, Cunningham, Pearson, Gallagher, Barkhuizen (Bodin 73), Browne (Moult 63), Robinson (Johnson 79), Maguire. Subs (not used): Clarke, Harrop, Earl, Rudd.
Derby: Carson, Wisdom, Pearce, Davies, Baird, Ledley, Huddlestone, Weimann, Vydra (Palmer 73), Lawrence (Hanson 88), Nugent (Jerome 90). Subs (not used): Forsyth, Keogh, Thomas, Roos.
Referee: Tony Harrington (Tyne and Wear)
Attendance: 13,520 (1,140 away)

Death, taxes, North End getting zero points at Easter and home defeats by Derby are the norm in life and so it came to pass that the Rams with only one shot on target take all three points.
Dinner time kicks offs don't usually great entertainment and true to form this was a decidedly average game played in the early stages in pouring rain.
Both sides started like they had both lost their lat matches 4-1 a quiet ground and a quiet first half, North End shaded the play with Derby setting up not concede and try to catch North End on the break. We did all right up to a point but sides who defend deep we find great difficulty with given our ponderous build ups. A couple of half chances which fell to Robinson and little of note from Derby.
Our big chance came shortly before half time, Robinson brought down by Wisdom, Browne took the kick clipped the outside of the post chance gone. If it had gone in would possibly have changed course of game and you knew Derby would get one chance and this came early in the second half from a free kick. Lawrence took it and less than impressive goalkeeping by Maxwell as the ball squirmed through his hands into the net.
From then on it was always going to be a tough task, two efforts from Huntington and Gallagher ended up in the crowd and only an effort from substitute Bodin forced Carson into a save. Derby went close when sub Palmer went narrowly wide.
Derby now have a five point advantage over us with six games to play but after watching this one suspect we will be playing each other next season.

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Manager Alex Neil reflected on this afternoon’s 1-0 defeat to Derby and felt his players did enough to win the game.

Tom Lawrence’s free kick early on in the second half gave the Rams the spoils at Deepdale in this afternoon’s early kick off, and the manager was left to rue the missed opportunities his side had throughout the 90 minutes.

“We were the better team throughout the game,” analysed Neil after the final whistle. “We moved the ball better, created more opportunities and we did pretty much everything you can do from a performance but the key areas where you need to make your differences is the scoreline.

“We had the penalty obviously where we miss it which can happen - but we had 19 opportunities - two of which were on target so it shows that that’s the area we’ve lacked in terms of quality to make the difference.
“Then they have two shots on target, one of which ends up in the back of the net. What’s disappointing for me is that I’ve got some lads who are devastated in there, one being Alan Browne and I really feel for him at the moment. We done everything we could, the one thing we lacked is putting the ball in the back of the net.

“They didn’t have a shot on goal in the first half but at the end of the day the ball has got to go in the back of the net and that’s what matters. We moved the ball well at times but when we did get opportunities we snatched at them, there’s not much I can say because I can’t be too critical of my team because they performed well and they did nearly everything I asked of them. You just rely on their ability to put the ball in the net.

Neil added: “We did everything we could we just didn’t have enough to win the game. We were dealt with a sucker punch from the free kick which we should have done better with so naturally we’re all disappointed and frustrated today.”

Although admitting that the job of a Play-Off place remains even harder following today’s result, the gaffer vowed to the PNE fans that they’ll be doing everything they can to win their remaining games and see where it takes them come May 6th.

He continued: “What I’ve said to them is there’s been more than five points that we’ve had to chase down at some points this season.

“It’s now going to be minimal five points but we’ve closed that gap before and we’ve just got to try and play as well as we can and try and win as many as we can.
“We’ll be disappointed tonight after today’s game but we need to brush it off and finish the season strongly, obviously we’ve been really disappointed today but we’ve got six games to go to make sure we finish the season strongly.



Gary Rowett hopes that confidence will continue to build after Derby County ended their eight-game winless run with a battling 1-0 victory against Preston North End.

Tom Lawrence grabbed the only goal with a stunning free-kick early in the second-half to secure a first success in nearly two months for the Rams.

Rowett wants his players to take advantage of the increase in belief that will come as a result of an important win.

He told RamsTV:“I’m pleased, it feels like relief. It didn’t matter how we won the game, we need to play better than that but, to be honest, I’m not bothered today.

“I don’t think it was about the points today or where we are in the league, but more about the psychological angle because the longer the winless run went on, the more pressure there would be on the players.


“We looked a little bit edgy and what a win does it settle everything down and give the players an extra little bit of confidence.

“We have to seize the opportunity of what this result has done for us.”

Lawrence was replaced at half-time during the defeat to Sunderland on Friday but he produced the perfect response at Deepdale with his fourth goal of the season.

Rowett was thrilled with the performance of his Welsh winger - especially after the break - and he explained why it only takes one moment to change the course of a performance.


He said: “It’s typical of the recent run because in the first half, he looked a little bit edgy, but in the second half, as soon as he scored, he was a different player.

“That’s what confidence does for you, and whatever anybody thinks, you can’t just turn it on like a tap.

“It’s a great strike and it was a deserved goal to win the game, but you see afterwards that he looked like our most lively player."

The boss also reserved praise for David Nugent, Curtis Davies and Alex Pearce, who made his first start in the Sky Bet Championship this season.

He added: “There were some good performances today, even though it was a different type of performance.

“Nuge worked his socks off, and for Alex, it’s not easy to come into the team but him and Curtis were very strong defensively.”

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The focus now turns to the home clash with Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, and Rowett wants his side to put on a show for the fans at Pride Park Stadium.

He said: “We have to improve our home performances, because we haven’t played well enough and we will need the team ethic and resilience, but also the composure when we attack.

“Hopefully, three points will give us the belief to go and do that.”