15-08-2017, 09:32
Big Match Preview: Derby County v PNE
The Lilywhites will look to build on their positive start to the season when they travel to face Derby County at Pride Park on Tuesday night.
They must do it without midfielder Ben Pearson, after his sending-off at Leeds United at the weekend, but with the confidence of how they dealt with the situation, having to play over 35 minutes with ten men.
The Lilywhites will be looking for their first league win at Pride Park, since their first visit 15 years ago, when Dickson Etuhu and David Healy were on the scoresheet, with Warren Barton seeing red for the Rams.
They have won there since, in January 2008, when the side were convincing 4-1 FA Cup winners against their then top flight opponents, but the last two trips have ended all-square.
The Opposition
Tom Huddlestone could be an injury doubt for the home side. The midfielder got through 90 minutes in Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but was hampered by a groin problem, manager Gary Rowett revealed after the game.
“Tom Huddlestone felt a little bit of tightness," said Rowett. "I don’t think he quite felt as though have his range of passing, and I think you could see that.
"He looked a little be inhibited and that was just down to picking up a slight groin injury at the end of last week. So we will see how he feels this morning.”
Striker Matej Vydra remains a doubt after missing the Wolves game due to a hamstring injury: “We are hoping Vyds will training this morning, but we won’t know that until we get the medical news," Rowett added.
Meanwhile, Darren Bent, George Thorne, Jason Shackell and Max Lowe are all still unavailable as they recover from injuries.
PNE Team News
Ben Pearson will miss just one game after his two cautions at Elland Road at the weekend and the manager has a number of options at his disposal, including the two substitutes who were used at the weekend – Paul Gallagher and Josh Harrop – who made his competitive debut at Leeds.
John Welsh is not yet ready to return to the squad and joins skipper Tom Clarke and Declan Rudd on the sidelines ahead of the trip to Pride Park.
The Officials
The referee on Tuesday night is, Geoff Eltringham. He took charge of one North End game last season, the home clash with Barnsley, having also done one the previous season, the 1-0 home win over Reading.
The year prior to that he charge of three Lilywhites games, including the 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in March. The previous season he also took charge of North End twice, both of those at Deepdale - the 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers back in November 2013 and then the goalless draw with Sheffield United in March.
The County Durham official is an experienced referee who had taken charge of North End a number of times in the past including the very first game after the departure of Graham Westley, when John Dreyer took the team against an in-form Bournemouth side and ran out 2-0 winners.
He also looked after a thriller back in 2010, when North End overcame Crystal Palace 4-3 at Deepdale.
Stat Attack
• We make the first of this season’s four trips to fellow founder members of the Football League tonight, having faced Derby County at three different grounds since our first away league encounter on 29th September 1888. That match ended in a 3-2 win at the County Cricket Ground that was Derby’s first home before they moved to the Baseball Ground in 1895. We were regular visitors there until 1985, but by the time we next faced each other after a 20 year gap, County had moved to their current home.
• We have played 52 previous league games in Derby, resulting in 12 wins, 10 draws and 29 defeats; Derby have an equally poor record at Deepdale. Our biggest victory was by 3-0 in 1935, whilst our heaviest defeat was by 5-1 in 2004. Our consolation goal in that match was scored by Youl Mawene, but it is not counted amongst his eight goals for North End as he was still a Derby County player at the time and he put through his own goal!
• Youl is one of a number of players to appear for both clubs including Jonathon Clark, Paul Coutts, Bret Angell, Brian O’Neil and Danny Dichio, whilst recent loan signing Stephy Mavididi was born in Derby in 1998.
• We have played five previous league games on this date, with three of these being away games. Of these, we won at MK Dons two years ago thanks to a 28th minute goal from Paul Gallagher and drew 1-1 at both Luton (1998) and Doncaster (2009). In 1981, we overcame our Fylde coast neighbours 2-1 in a Football League Trophy group match at Deepdale, Alex Bruce and Graham Houston scoring our goals.
• No postwar players were born on this date, but Stuart Baxter is 64 tomorrow and the goalkeeper in our first season after the resumption of league football in 1946 was born 100 years ago tomorrow!
With two games in four days, PNE manager Alex Neil has spoken about the importance of the depth of his squad and the supportive nature of the lads in the build up to the Derby County clash.
North End will be following up a 0-0 draw with Leeds United at Elland Road with a trip to Pride Park on Tuesday night. PNE spent a third of the match with ten men as Ben Pearson was dismissed but Alex Neil is thinking of the other players in his team that can challenge for the now available starting berth.
Speaking to PNE.Com he said: “That’s the luxury of having a good squad, it’s important, we’re going to need everyone between now and the end of the season and the lads are really supportive of each other.
“Even the ones that are not playing, they’re there to support their teammates and hope that they do well; if they’re given an opportunity they want to come in and make sure they contribute.
“They’ve been that way since day one, that’s never changed, their attitude is first class. We need to replace Ben; see how the opposition are going to play and make sure all the lads are nice and fresh and fit and ready to go.”
Looking back at the result on Saturday in Yorkshire, the Lilywhites’ boss was proud of the his team's performance, who were only missing a goal on the day.
“The only thing we were lacking was the elusive goal that we thought we deserved. We had some good opportunities to get it, we hit the bar, Alan Browne had two really good opportunities; there’s one DJ [Daniel Johnson] flashes across the goal towards the end so we had good bits in the game.
“I thought we played really well, we were pleased with the performance. Especially when we went down to ten men – we showed the other side of the game and we did that really well as well so all in all, a really good day."
With his focus now turning to the Derby County trip on Tuesday, Neil is expecting a difficult encounter. The Rams are still looking for a win this season but will likely go into Tuesday’s game as favourites, which the gaffer welcomes.
“They haven’t won a game yet but they’re a big club, there’s a lot of expectation there and I think it’s going to be a really difficult, but hopefully exciting, game come tomorrow night; because we want to go there and try and win it.
“I think that plays right into our hands because I think they expect to turn up and roll Preston over. As the two teams we’ve played so far have found out, that’s certainly not going to be the case. We’re focused, we’re determined and we’ve got some really good players – we’ve got to showcase that again.
North End defying expectations against perceived bigger teams has created reactions on social media from opposing fans and the PNE boss sees it as a positive that they’re proving people wrong and have them talking.
“That’s pleasing because people will only talk about you in that manner because you’re playing well and their teams not dominating you in the way that they expect. I take that as a sort of bonus and it’s nice for people to say that. They’re not saying it in a nice manner but we’re certainly taking it in a good way.”
With the major news for the club that the proposed plans for the new training ground development have been accepted, Alex Neil wants the club to continue to make forward strides to improving everything about the club.
“It’s great, as a club if we’re going to move forward we need to improve every element of the business. The fact is the training ground is where we spend pretty much every day.
“If we want to attract the best players then we need to make sure the lads are well catered for and that we can do everything in our power to get them to where all they need to worry about it performing on Saturday. A good training ground is absolutely fundamental, it’s a great step forward for the club.”
A part of the progression the club has made is the growing number of international call-ups the playing squad are receiving. Four of the Irish members of the PNE squad have been called up to the Republic of Ireland’s provisional squad and the manager believes that it is no less than they all deserve.
“It’s giving them that pat on the back for the performances that they’ve been putting in so far and they’ll be really pleased with that. We’ve got a high Irish contingent in the changing room so I’m delighted for them.
“I’m hoping that Martin or Roy have been at our games and seen how well we’ve played and how well Greg has done in particular, even Sean in the first game. They’re getting the credit they deserve due to the fact that they’ve played really well.”
Gary Rowett wants to see more energy from his Derby County side when they take on Preston North End in their latest Sky Bet Championship fixture this evening.
After tasting a 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday, Derby are back in action on home turf tonight against the Lilywhites (7:45pm kick-off).
The Derby boss says he will be making changes to the Rams’ starting XI for the clash against Alex Neil’s side.
Speaking at Monday’s pre-match press conference, Rowett said: “We want to have some more energy in the team and we’ll look to make changes to try and make that happen.
“I am not going to be too reactionary after one poor performance – but we know it wasn’t good enough and none of us are happy about it.
“You would look to change things for a midweek game anyway and we have good players in the squad ready to call upon.”
Preston have started the season in a positive manner and have acquired four points from their opening two matches.
A 1-0 home win against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the campaign was followed up by a 0-0 draw at Leeds United on Saturday.
Rowett is expecting a typically difficult test against the Lilywhites.
He said: “We have played against Preston and Alex Neil’s teams before and they’ll have an edge to them and be physical.
“They have some good players and are good at what they do.
“As ever, it’s about us and what we do. We have to concentrate on our focus on what we do both with and without the ball.”
He added: “As a manager I know I have to get the best out of my players and that didn’t happen on Saturday.
“We have done some good things in the first two games but I know that the game is defined by the result.
“I have to try and take the emotion out of it and, regardless of the result, be critical when reviewing the game.”
Rowett has seen some encouraging moments in Derby’s opening two league fixtures so far, but knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.
A 1-1 draw at Sunderland got the season underway prior to Saturday’s defeat against Wolves.
In both games the Rams enjoyed long spells of possession but, ultimately, have been unable to create significant number of opportunities.
In addition to that, Rowett feels Derby can be better out of possession.
He said: “Against Wolves, like Sunderland, we had some bright moments without creating too many obvious opportunities.
“We had a lot of the ball on Saturday against Wolves, but they did more with it than us. We spoke about that sort of thing a lot in pre-season and also in the first two games; we need to be more ruthless.
“On the other side, I don’t think we recovered our shape or worked hard enough to get back into our shape when we didn’t have the ball; we know what we need to work on that and react better.”
The Lilywhites will look to build on their positive start to the season when they travel to face Derby County at Pride Park on Tuesday night.
They must do it without midfielder Ben Pearson, after his sending-off at Leeds United at the weekend, but with the confidence of how they dealt with the situation, having to play over 35 minutes with ten men.
The Lilywhites will be looking for their first league win at Pride Park, since their first visit 15 years ago, when Dickson Etuhu and David Healy were on the scoresheet, with Warren Barton seeing red for the Rams.
They have won there since, in January 2008, when the side were convincing 4-1 FA Cup winners against their then top flight opponents, but the last two trips have ended all-square.
The Opposition
Tom Huddlestone could be an injury doubt for the home side. The midfielder got through 90 minutes in Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but was hampered by a groin problem, manager Gary Rowett revealed after the game.
“Tom Huddlestone felt a little bit of tightness," said Rowett. "I don’t think he quite felt as though have his range of passing, and I think you could see that.
"He looked a little be inhibited and that was just down to picking up a slight groin injury at the end of last week. So we will see how he feels this morning.”
Striker Matej Vydra remains a doubt after missing the Wolves game due to a hamstring injury: “We are hoping Vyds will training this morning, but we won’t know that until we get the medical news," Rowett added.
Meanwhile, Darren Bent, George Thorne, Jason Shackell and Max Lowe are all still unavailable as they recover from injuries.
PNE Team News
Ben Pearson will miss just one game after his two cautions at Elland Road at the weekend and the manager has a number of options at his disposal, including the two substitutes who were used at the weekend – Paul Gallagher and Josh Harrop – who made his competitive debut at Leeds.
John Welsh is not yet ready to return to the squad and joins skipper Tom Clarke and Declan Rudd on the sidelines ahead of the trip to Pride Park.
The Officials
The referee on Tuesday night is, Geoff Eltringham. He took charge of one North End game last season, the home clash with Barnsley, having also done one the previous season, the 1-0 home win over Reading.
The year prior to that he charge of three Lilywhites games, including the 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in March. The previous season he also took charge of North End twice, both of those at Deepdale - the 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers back in November 2013 and then the goalless draw with Sheffield United in March.
The County Durham official is an experienced referee who had taken charge of North End a number of times in the past including the very first game after the departure of Graham Westley, when John Dreyer took the team against an in-form Bournemouth side and ran out 2-0 winners.
He also looked after a thriller back in 2010, when North End overcame Crystal Palace 4-3 at Deepdale.
Stat Attack
• We make the first of this season’s four trips to fellow founder members of the Football League tonight, having faced Derby County at three different grounds since our first away league encounter on 29th September 1888. That match ended in a 3-2 win at the County Cricket Ground that was Derby’s first home before they moved to the Baseball Ground in 1895. We were regular visitors there until 1985, but by the time we next faced each other after a 20 year gap, County had moved to their current home.
• We have played 52 previous league games in Derby, resulting in 12 wins, 10 draws and 29 defeats; Derby have an equally poor record at Deepdale. Our biggest victory was by 3-0 in 1935, whilst our heaviest defeat was by 5-1 in 2004. Our consolation goal in that match was scored by Youl Mawene, but it is not counted amongst his eight goals for North End as he was still a Derby County player at the time and he put through his own goal!
• Youl is one of a number of players to appear for both clubs including Jonathon Clark, Paul Coutts, Bret Angell, Brian O’Neil and Danny Dichio, whilst recent loan signing Stephy Mavididi was born in Derby in 1998.
• We have played five previous league games on this date, with three of these being away games. Of these, we won at MK Dons two years ago thanks to a 28th minute goal from Paul Gallagher and drew 1-1 at both Luton (1998) and Doncaster (2009). In 1981, we overcame our Fylde coast neighbours 2-1 in a Football League Trophy group match at Deepdale, Alex Bruce and Graham Houston scoring our goals.
• No postwar players were born on this date, but Stuart Baxter is 64 tomorrow and the goalkeeper in our first season after the resumption of league football in 1946 was born 100 years ago tomorrow!
With two games in four days, PNE manager Alex Neil has spoken about the importance of the depth of his squad and the supportive nature of the lads in the build up to the Derby County clash.
North End will be following up a 0-0 draw with Leeds United at Elland Road with a trip to Pride Park on Tuesday night. PNE spent a third of the match with ten men as Ben Pearson was dismissed but Alex Neil is thinking of the other players in his team that can challenge for the now available starting berth.
Speaking to PNE.Com he said: “That’s the luxury of having a good squad, it’s important, we’re going to need everyone between now and the end of the season and the lads are really supportive of each other.
“Even the ones that are not playing, they’re there to support their teammates and hope that they do well; if they’re given an opportunity they want to come in and make sure they contribute.
“They’ve been that way since day one, that’s never changed, their attitude is first class. We need to replace Ben; see how the opposition are going to play and make sure all the lads are nice and fresh and fit and ready to go.”
Looking back at the result on Saturday in Yorkshire, the Lilywhites’ boss was proud of the his team's performance, who were only missing a goal on the day.
“The only thing we were lacking was the elusive goal that we thought we deserved. We had some good opportunities to get it, we hit the bar, Alan Browne had two really good opportunities; there’s one DJ [Daniel Johnson] flashes across the goal towards the end so we had good bits in the game.
“I thought we played really well, we were pleased with the performance. Especially when we went down to ten men – we showed the other side of the game and we did that really well as well so all in all, a really good day."
With his focus now turning to the Derby County trip on Tuesday, Neil is expecting a difficult encounter. The Rams are still looking for a win this season but will likely go into Tuesday’s game as favourites, which the gaffer welcomes.
“They haven’t won a game yet but they’re a big club, there’s a lot of expectation there and I think it’s going to be a really difficult, but hopefully exciting, game come tomorrow night; because we want to go there and try and win it.
“I think that plays right into our hands because I think they expect to turn up and roll Preston over. As the two teams we’ve played so far have found out, that’s certainly not going to be the case. We’re focused, we’re determined and we’ve got some really good players – we’ve got to showcase that again.
North End defying expectations against perceived bigger teams has created reactions on social media from opposing fans and the PNE boss sees it as a positive that they’re proving people wrong and have them talking.
“That’s pleasing because people will only talk about you in that manner because you’re playing well and their teams not dominating you in the way that they expect. I take that as a sort of bonus and it’s nice for people to say that. They’re not saying it in a nice manner but we’re certainly taking it in a good way.”
With the major news for the club that the proposed plans for the new training ground development have been accepted, Alex Neil wants the club to continue to make forward strides to improving everything about the club.
“It’s great, as a club if we’re going to move forward we need to improve every element of the business. The fact is the training ground is where we spend pretty much every day.
“If we want to attract the best players then we need to make sure the lads are well catered for and that we can do everything in our power to get them to where all they need to worry about it performing on Saturday. A good training ground is absolutely fundamental, it’s a great step forward for the club.”
A part of the progression the club has made is the growing number of international call-ups the playing squad are receiving. Four of the Irish members of the PNE squad have been called up to the Republic of Ireland’s provisional squad and the manager believes that it is no less than they all deserve.
“It’s giving them that pat on the back for the performances that they’ve been putting in so far and they’ll be really pleased with that. We’ve got a high Irish contingent in the changing room so I’m delighted for them.
“I’m hoping that Martin or Roy have been at our games and seen how well we’ve played and how well Greg has done in particular, even Sean in the first game. They’re getting the credit they deserve due to the fact that they’ve played really well.”
Gary Rowett wants to see more energy from his Derby County side when they take on Preston North End in their latest Sky Bet Championship fixture this evening.
After tasting a 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Pride Park Stadium on Saturday, Derby are back in action on home turf tonight against the Lilywhites (7:45pm kick-off).
The Derby boss says he will be making changes to the Rams’ starting XI for the clash against Alex Neil’s side.
Speaking at Monday’s pre-match press conference, Rowett said: “We want to have some more energy in the team and we’ll look to make changes to try and make that happen.
“I am not going to be too reactionary after one poor performance – but we know it wasn’t good enough and none of us are happy about it.
“You would look to change things for a midweek game anyway and we have good players in the squad ready to call upon.”
Preston have started the season in a positive manner and have acquired four points from their opening two matches.
A 1-0 home win against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day of the campaign was followed up by a 0-0 draw at Leeds United on Saturday.
Rowett is expecting a typically difficult test against the Lilywhites.
He said: “We have played against Preston and Alex Neil’s teams before and they’ll have an edge to them and be physical.
“They have some good players and are good at what they do.
“As ever, it’s about us and what we do. We have to concentrate on our focus on what we do both with and without the ball.”
He added: “As a manager I know I have to get the best out of my players and that didn’t happen on Saturday.
“We have done some good things in the first two games but I know that the game is defined by the result.
“I have to try and take the emotion out of it and, regardless of the result, be critical when reviewing the game.”
Rowett has seen some encouraging moments in Derby’s opening two league fixtures so far, but knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.
A 1-1 draw at Sunderland got the season underway prior to Saturday’s defeat against Wolves.
In both games the Rams enjoyed long spells of possession but, ultimately, have been unable to create significant number of opportunities.
In addition to that, Rowett feels Derby can be better out of possession.
He said: “Against Wolves, like Sunderland, we had some bright moments without creating too many obvious opportunities.
“We had a lot of the ball on Saturday against Wolves, but they did more with it than us. We spoke about that sort of thing a lot in pre-season and also in the first two games; we need to be more ruthless.
“On the other side, I don’t think we recovered our shape or worked hard enough to get back into our shape when we didn’t have the ball; we know what we need to work on that and react better.”
Why should a man go to work, if he has the health and strength to stay in bed?