Big Match Preview: Accrington Stanley v PNE
Preston North End get their Carabao Cup campaign underway at the Wham Stadium on Tuesday night, when Alex Neil’s men take on Accrington Stanley.
Both teams started the season with victories in their respective leagues at the season and will be looking to maintain that momentum with cup success on Tuesday night.
Having met just a few short weeks ago, in the middle of pre-season, Stanley and the Lilywhites know plenty of each other’s style and the options available to the respective managers, but this Lancashire derby will not be played on friendly terms.
The Opposition Manager
John Coleman speaking to accringtonstanley.co.uk: “We know a lot about Preston and the way they play. They really impressed me in the pre-season game here, they had a good work ethic and they moved the ball well.
“That night we didn’t play as well as I know we can and we had a bit of a mixed side out, so I think that they’ll definitely see a much better Accrington this time around.
“We learnt a lot from Saturday’s win over Colchester, there was some very good points and some excellent play. There are a few areas we need to brush up on and we’ll speak to the players about certain aspects that we want them to be getting right more often.”
PNE Team News
North End boss Alex Neil revealed that Josh Harrop is not quite ready to make his PNE competitive debut, having sat out Saturday’s opening day win over Sheffield Wednesday at Deepdale.
Other than Harrop, only skipper Tom Clark (Achilles) is out of action, meaning the manager has multiple options to choose from against a side who were victorious against Colchester United on the opening day.
Sean Maguire could be involved against a club where he made 33 appearances for Coleman, who brought him over from Ireland.
The Officials
Experienced match official Eddie Ilderton takes charge of his first PNE encounter since our memorable derby day win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in April 2016.
That year, he also refereed the home draw with Bristol City and he was in charge of two PNE matches the previous year season; March 2015's 1-1 draw at Barnsley and October 2014's home derby day win over Fleetwood Town, when Joe Garner's second half hat-trick gave the Lilywhites a 3-2 win.
Eddie, from Tyne & Wear, is in his 16th season on the Football League list and is a familiar face to North End fans. Astonishingly, this will be his 23rd game in charge of North End, with the Lilywhites only losing two of 23 so far!
Other recent games in charge of PNE before the Fleetwood game were 2013/14 season's Boxing Day win at Carlisle, when Josh Brownhill scored the goal of the season and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy win at Morecambe in October 2010 - whilst his first was a 3-0 home win over Gillingham way back in February 2003!
Stat Attack
This is only the third time we have ever faced Accrington Stanley in a competitive fixture. The previous occasion was the third round of the FA Cup in 1960/61; we drew 1-1 at Deepdale before overcoming Stanley 4-0 in the replay at Peel Park two days later.
It is a common misconception that Stanley were founder members of the Football League but in fact that was Accrington FC, who were a totally different club. Accrington FC were older than North End, formed in 1876 and they have a special palce in our history, being the first team to take a league point off us in a goalless draw on 20th October 1888. They resigned from the league in 1893 following relegation to the newly created Second Division and folded in 1896. We played Accrington in ten league games, winning six and drawing four.
Stanley were formed in 1891, but did not enter the league until 1921. After several years of financial difficulty, they resigned during the season after we faced each other in the cup. The club folded in 1966 and the current version of Stanley resurrected the club's name in 1968. They finally returned to the Football League in 2006 after winning promotion from the Football Conference.
After his first league win as PNE manager on Saturday, Alex Neil is determined to get his first cup win as PNE boss.
The team were victorious against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day with a 1-0 win and Tuesday's game against Accrington Stanley is just as important to the manager, who spoke to iFollow PNE about the Carabao Cup first round clash.
“It’s going to be important that we try and win all of the games – that’s the way we’re going to go about every match. This one is just as important as any so it’ll be a good test for us.
“We will treat the game as we’d treat any other game. We’ll put a team together that we think is capable of winning the match and we’ll go there and try and win the game. Whether that’s the same starting 11 form Saturday or whether it’s slightly different to that, that will remain to be seen.
“Even in the pre-season matches we went there to win and we managed to do that. We don’t take any game lightly we want to make sure we go there and apply ourselves properly and the lads have been great at that so far so I don’t anticipate this one being any different.”
The staff have completed their preparations for the contest and Alex Neil expects to see a different Stanley side to the one that beat Colchester United as the season got underway.
Accrington ran out 3-1 winners at the Wham Stadium and Neil is excited for the clash with both teams winning at the weekend.
“We looked at the footage this morning regarding them and I don’t anticipate that the team is going to be similar to the team that is going to turn out tomorrow. We’ll probably have a few changes in there, certainly from the team that played there the last time, we were still finding our feet in pre-season.
“It’ll be a good game - they won their first match, we’ve managed to win our first match - so we’ve got both teams going into it confident and looking forward to the game.
New signing Stephy Mavididi will be available to make his first start for the club but fellow new signing Josh Harrop remains side-lined with Alex Neil planning on using the best squad for the game.
“I’m glad Stephy will be fine, we’ve got good options in good areas. The only frustrating thing is that we’ve still a couple of players who are not fully up to speed and that I can’t get them some game time.
"Josh Harrop being one. It is what it is, we’ll put out the best squad for the game and we’ll go about our business.”
Preston North End get their Carabao Cup campaign underway at the Wham Stadium on Tuesday night, when Alex Neil’s men take on Accrington Stanley.
Both teams started the season with victories in their respective leagues at the season and will be looking to maintain that momentum with cup success on Tuesday night.
Having met just a few short weeks ago, in the middle of pre-season, Stanley and the Lilywhites know plenty of each other’s style and the options available to the respective managers, but this Lancashire derby will not be played on friendly terms.
The Opposition Manager
John Coleman speaking to accringtonstanley.co.uk: “We know a lot about Preston and the way they play. They really impressed me in the pre-season game here, they had a good work ethic and they moved the ball well.
“That night we didn’t play as well as I know we can and we had a bit of a mixed side out, so I think that they’ll definitely see a much better Accrington this time around.
“We learnt a lot from Saturday’s win over Colchester, there was some very good points and some excellent play. There are a few areas we need to brush up on and we’ll speak to the players about certain aspects that we want them to be getting right more often.”
PNE Team News
North End boss Alex Neil revealed that Josh Harrop is not quite ready to make his PNE competitive debut, having sat out Saturday’s opening day win over Sheffield Wednesday at Deepdale.
Other than Harrop, only skipper Tom Clark (Achilles) is out of action, meaning the manager has multiple options to choose from against a side who were victorious against Colchester United on the opening day.
Sean Maguire could be involved against a club where he made 33 appearances for Coleman, who brought him over from Ireland.
The Officials
Experienced match official Eddie Ilderton takes charge of his first PNE encounter since our memorable derby day win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in April 2016.
That year, he also refereed the home draw with Bristol City and he was in charge of two PNE matches the previous year season; March 2015's 1-1 draw at Barnsley and October 2014's home derby day win over Fleetwood Town, when Joe Garner's second half hat-trick gave the Lilywhites a 3-2 win.
Eddie, from Tyne & Wear, is in his 16th season on the Football League list and is a familiar face to North End fans. Astonishingly, this will be his 23rd game in charge of North End, with the Lilywhites only losing two of 23 so far!
Other recent games in charge of PNE before the Fleetwood game were 2013/14 season's Boxing Day win at Carlisle, when Josh Brownhill scored the goal of the season and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy win at Morecambe in October 2010 - whilst his first was a 3-0 home win over Gillingham way back in February 2003!
Stat Attack
This is only the third time we have ever faced Accrington Stanley in a competitive fixture. The previous occasion was the third round of the FA Cup in 1960/61; we drew 1-1 at Deepdale before overcoming Stanley 4-0 in the replay at Peel Park two days later.
It is a common misconception that Stanley were founder members of the Football League but in fact that was Accrington FC, who were a totally different club. Accrington FC were older than North End, formed in 1876 and they have a special palce in our history, being the first team to take a league point off us in a goalless draw on 20th October 1888. They resigned from the league in 1893 following relegation to the newly created Second Division and folded in 1896. We played Accrington in ten league games, winning six and drawing four.
Stanley were formed in 1891, but did not enter the league until 1921. After several years of financial difficulty, they resigned during the season after we faced each other in the cup. The club folded in 1966 and the current version of Stanley resurrected the club's name in 1968. They finally returned to the Football League in 2006 after winning promotion from the Football Conference.
After his first league win as PNE manager on Saturday, Alex Neil is determined to get his first cup win as PNE boss.
The team were victorious against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day with a 1-0 win and Tuesday's game against Accrington Stanley is just as important to the manager, who spoke to iFollow PNE about the Carabao Cup first round clash.
“It’s going to be important that we try and win all of the games – that’s the way we’re going to go about every match. This one is just as important as any so it’ll be a good test for us.
“We will treat the game as we’d treat any other game. We’ll put a team together that we think is capable of winning the match and we’ll go there and try and win the game. Whether that’s the same starting 11 form Saturday or whether it’s slightly different to that, that will remain to be seen.
“Even in the pre-season matches we went there to win and we managed to do that. We don’t take any game lightly we want to make sure we go there and apply ourselves properly and the lads have been great at that so far so I don’t anticipate this one being any different.”
The staff have completed their preparations for the contest and Alex Neil expects to see a different Stanley side to the one that beat Colchester United as the season got underway.
Accrington ran out 3-1 winners at the Wham Stadium and Neil is excited for the clash with both teams winning at the weekend.
“We looked at the footage this morning regarding them and I don’t anticipate that the team is going to be similar to the team that is going to turn out tomorrow. We’ll probably have a few changes in there, certainly from the team that played there the last time, we were still finding our feet in pre-season.
“It’ll be a good game - they won their first match, we’ve managed to win our first match - so we’ve got both teams going into it confident and looking forward to the game.
New signing Stephy Mavididi will be available to make his first start for the club but fellow new signing Josh Harrop remains side-lined with Alex Neil planning on using the best squad for the game.
“I’m glad Stephy will be fine, we’ve got good options in good areas. The only frustrating thing is that we’ve still a couple of players who are not fully up to speed and that I can’t get them some game time.
"Josh Harrop being one. It is what it is, we’ll put out the best squad for the game and we’ll go about our business.”
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