Preston North End 1 Browne Queens Park Rangers 0
PNE: Rudd, Fisher, Clarke, Davies, Hughes, Pearson, Browne, Barkhuizen (Horgan 70), Harrop (Ledson 83), Robinson, Moult (Gallagher 76). Subs (not used): Woods, Burke, Huntington, Maxwell.
QPR: Ingram, Kakay, Leistner, Lynch, Bidwell, Scowen, Luongo (Smyth 66), Osayi-Samuel (Manning 46), Eze, Freeman, Smith (Sylla 76). Subs (not used): Cousins, Washington, Baptiste, Lumley.
Referee: Darren England (Barnsley) Attendance: 13,418 (1,064 QPR)
Cannot beat a win on the first day of the season over a well organised but ambitiously limited QPR who were quite happy to soak up the pressure and try and catch us on the break, they nearly sneaked a point which they would not have deserved when Sylla's close range effort led to Rudd pulling out a worldie two minutes from time.
North End started brightly played some neat build up play but when we got towards the Rangers area we seemed to run out of ideas, two Barkhuizen efforts one wide and one tipped round the post by Ingram, did have other shots on goal but they all seemed to hit the decent looking Rangers captain Leistner.
Towards half time Rangers came more into the game this coincided with the manager leaving his place in the gantry to stand on the touchline, they probably should have scored when Freeman's free kick was met by Smith's header he put it wide should have done better.
![[Image: hoop%20001_zpsfrf5c77c.jpg]](http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e7/themaclad/hoop%20001_zpsfrf5c77c.jpg)
North End took the lead within five minutes of the re start Harrop's free kick to beyond the back stick, Browne's looping header dropped towards the back post Luongo tried to head clear but failed.
In truth not a lot really happened after that as both sets of players tired then came Rudd's save, North End finished with 10 as Clarke suffered concussion and had to leave the field a couple of corners were scrambled away but the end result is three points on the board.
Result is a positive think we definitely need another forward, Moult did well but needs players closer to him, Pearson was Pearson as per usual, though Davies outstanding against Smith who is an awkward opponent.
Rangers if they loose Freeman could be a long season given the FFP gobbins that they are under, both centre backs played well with the German Leistner looking a decent recruit.
With cricket commitments last Saturday game until 25/9/2018 although the English weather could change that
Alex Neil cut a satisfied figure after today’s opening day victory, and picked out several traits from his team this afternoon which pleased him most.
North End recorded their first three points of the season at the first time of asking thanks to Alan Browne’s effort five minutes into the second half, and the Scotsman spoke about his side being disciplined at the back and aggressive in attack.
“When you need to dig in when you’re not dominating, defend your box and expect your goalkeeper to make quality saves and be organised and I thought we showed all of those traits so all in all - I’m just delighted to get the three points and get off to a good start to the season to build on.
“It was a good performance from us. Certainly first half we didn’t get what we deserved in terms of the goals because we had some good chances and a lot of good chances to make good chances!”
The manager did feel however that his side needed to be more clinical in front of goal, something which the manager pointed out a number of times last season, and the PNE boss admitted he’s still looking for more goals from his team this time out.
“We didn’t really look as damaging in that final third as I’d have liked but all in all, we had 64 percent possession with more shots than them in the game, more chances than them and we did what we needed to do," assessed the PNE boss.
“We worked the ball for three quarters of the pitch really well to create chances but we really need to have better quality in that area. We’re still trying to get better in them areas, and we know we need to strengthen in them areas but today what we did more than enough to win the game.
“Last year we missed a lot of opportunities and we went a lot more aggressive in terms of the starting line-up today because we knew we needed to win this game, and especially at home we needed to score more goals so I’m very conscious with that.
“I think you can see with putting Josh Harrop in there running in behind and making it really difficult to pick them players up. We’d worked a lot on our movement at the top end and it was excellent but it’s that final bit of quality where you need somebody to take the game by the scruff of the neck and put the ball in the back of the net.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Lilywhites, with Declan Rudd notably making a terrific save late in the game, coupled with Tom Clarke having to leave the field two minutes from time with a head injury leaving North End a man short, and the manager praised his side for the grit and their determination to keep the clean sheet and get the win.
“Towards the end, Tom goes off and we have to hang on a little bit but we definitely deserved the win,” continued Alex.
“We’d made our three subs and Tom then wins a great header but he then has to come off, and we then have to patch it up at the back just to see it through but I thought over the course of the game we deserved the win.
STEVE McClaren admitted his QPR side “didn’t do enough” to get anything from their opening game of the season at Preston on Saturday afternoon.
The R’s lost 1-0, with Lilywhites central midfielder Alan Browne netting the winner early in the second half with a looping header from a Josh Harrop free-kick.
“You can have all the games in pre-season but you really find out about your team in the first match of the season,” said McClaren following his first competitive fixture as QPR boss.
We need to release the shackles and go and play like we know we can.
It was always going to be a very difficult game and we lost it on a set-play. We defended quite well and Matt Ingram only had one save to make but we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
Matt Smith went close for the R’s in the first-half while substitute Idrissa Sylla nearly snatched a draw late on but was denied by a stunning stop from home keeper Declan Rudd.
“We had a couple of chances and right at the end their keeper made a great save from Sylla,” McClaren added.
“That’s where you need a little bit of luck for the ball to go in and from there the belief will grow. I think we lacked that a little bit today.
“We need to release the shackles and go and play like we know we can.”
McClaren brought Ryan Manning on at the break for Bright Osayi-Samuel, while Paul Smyth and Sylla came on in the second half for Mass Luongo and Smith respectively.
“I thought the subs made a bit of an impact,” McClaren said. “Preston were dominating the midfield so we tried to quell that and I thought we did to a certain degree.
“But again we didn’t release the shackles when we had the ball and if we had done that we would have caused them more problems.”
The R’s chief will now be aiming to lift his players ahead of next weekend’s first home game of the season as we play host to Sheffield United.
“We’re disappointed and the players are disappointed,” he admitted. “We could have got something from the game but we didn’t do
PNE: Rudd, Fisher, Clarke, Davies, Hughes, Pearson, Browne, Barkhuizen (Horgan 70), Harrop (Ledson 83), Robinson, Moult (Gallagher 76). Subs (not used): Woods, Burke, Huntington, Maxwell.
QPR: Ingram, Kakay, Leistner, Lynch, Bidwell, Scowen, Luongo (Smyth 66), Osayi-Samuel (Manning 46), Eze, Freeman, Smith (Sylla 76). Subs (not used): Cousins, Washington, Baptiste, Lumley.
Referee: Darren England (Barnsley) Attendance: 13,418 (1,064 QPR)
Cannot beat a win on the first day of the season over a well organised but ambitiously limited QPR who were quite happy to soak up the pressure and try and catch us on the break, they nearly sneaked a point which they would not have deserved when Sylla's close range effort led to Rudd pulling out a worldie two minutes from time.
North End started brightly played some neat build up play but when we got towards the Rangers area we seemed to run out of ideas, two Barkhuizen efforts one wide and one tipped round the post by Ingram, did have other shots on goal but they all seemed to hit the decent looking Rangers captain Leistner.
Towards half time Rangers came more into the game this coincided with the manager leaving his place in the gantry to stand on the touchline, they probably should have scored when Freeman's free kick was met by Smith's header he put it wide should have done better.
![[Image: hoop%20001_zpsfrf5c77c.jpg]](http://s36.photobucket.com/user/themaclad/media/hoop%20001_zpsfrf5c77c.jpg.html)
North End took the lead within five minutes of the re start Harrop's free kick to beyond the back stick, Browne's looping header dropped towards the back post Luongo tried to head clear but failed.
In truth not a lot really happened after that as both sets of players tired then came Rudd's save, North End finished with 10 as Clarke suffered concussion and had to leave the field a couple of corners were scrambled away but the end result is three points on the board.
Result is a positive think we definitely need another forward, Moult did well but needs players closer to him, Pearson was Pearson as per usual, though Davies outstanding against Smith who is an awkward opponent.
Rangers if they loose Freeman could be a long season given the FFP gobbins that they are under, both centre backs played well with the German Leistner looking a decent recruit.
With cricket commitments last Saturday game until 25/9/2018 although the English weather could change that
Alex Neil cut a satisfied figure after today’s opening day victory, and picked out several traits from his team this afternoon which pleased him most.
North End recorded their first three points of the season at the first time of asking thanks to Alan Browne’s effort five minutes into the second half, and the Scotsman spoke about his side being disciplined at the back and aggressive in attack.
“When you need to dig in when you’re not dominating, defend your box and expect your goalkeeper to make quality saves and be organised and I thought we showed all of those traits so all in all - I’m just delighted to get the three points and get off to a good start to the season to build on.
“It was a good performance from us. Certainly first half we didn’t get what we deserved in terms of the goals because we had some good chances and a lot of good chances to make good chances!”
The manager did feel however that his side needed to be more clinical in front of goal, something which the manager pointed out a number of times last season, and the PNE boss admitted he’s still looking for more goals from his team this time out.
“We didn’t really look as damaging in that final third as I’d have liked but all in all, we had 64 percent possession with more shots than them in the game, more chances than them and we did what we needed to do," assessed the PNE boss.
“We worked the ball for three quarters of the pitch really well to create chances but we really need to have better quality in that area. We’re still trying to get better in them areas, and we know we need to strengthen in them areas but today what we did more than enough to win the game.
“Last year we missed a lot of opportunities and we went a lot more aggressive in terms of the starting line-up today because we knew we needed to win this game, and especially at home we needed to score more goals so I’m very conscious with that.
“I think you can see with putting Josh Harrop in there running in behind and making it really difficult to pick them players up. We’d worked a lot on our movement at the top end and it was excellent but it’s that final bit of quality where you need somebody to take the game by the scruff of the neck and put the ball in the back of the net.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Lilywhites, with Declan Rudd notably making a terrific save late in the game, coupled with Tom Clarke having to leave the field two minutes from time with a head injury leaving North End a man short, and the manager praised his side for the grit and their determination to keep the clean sheet and get the win.
“Towards the end, Tom goes off and we have to hang on a little bit but we definitely deserved the win,” continued Alex.
“We’d made our three subs and Tom then wins a great header but he then has to come off, and we then have to patch it up at the back just to see it through but I thought over the course of the game we deserved the win.
STEVE McClaren admitted his QPR side “didn’t do enough” to get anything from their opening game of the season at Preston on Saturday afternoon.
The R’s lost 1-0, with Lilywhites central midfielder Alan Browne netting the winner early in the second half with a looping header from a Josh Harrop free-kick.
“You can have all the games in pre-season but you really find out about your team in the first match of the season,” said McClaren following his first competitive fixture as QPR boss.
We need to release the shackles and go and play like we know we can.
It was always going to be a very difficult game and we lost it on a set-play. We defended quite well and Matt Ingram only had one save to make but we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
Matt Smith went close for the R’s in the first-half while substitute Idrissa Sylla nearly snatched a draw late on but was denied by a stunning stop from home keeper Declan Rudd.
“We had a couple of chances and right at the end their keeper made a great save from Sylla,” McClaren added.
“That’s where you need a little bit of luck for the ball to go in and from there the belief will grow. I think we lacked that a little bit today.
“We need to release the shackles and go and play like we know we can.”
McClaren brought Ryan Manning on at the break for Bright Osayi-Samuel, while Paul Smyth and Sylla came on in the second half for Mass Luongo and Smith respectively.
“I thought the subs made a bit of an impact,” McClaren said. “Preston were dominating the midfield so we tried to quell that and I thought we did to a certain degree.
“But again we didn’t release the shackles when we had the ball and if we had done that we would have caused them more problems.”
The R’s chief will now be aiming to lift his players ahead of next weekend’s first home game of the season as we play host to Sheffield United.
“We’re disappointed and the players are disappointed,” he admitted. “We could have got something from the game but we didn’t do
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