Match Report: PNE 1 Leicester City 2
2 Hours ago
@pnefc
Preston North End were narrowly beaten 2-1 by Premier League side Leicester City in the final game of pre-season.
The visitors had a two-goal lead inside 18 minutes through Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes, before Ali McCann got one back for PNE early in the second half.
It was a strong display from the home side in the second 45, but North End couldn’t quite find an equaliser.
The Foxes were the side on top in the early stages and they took the lead on 12 minutes, with Keirnan Dewsbury-Hall’s through ball finding Vardy, and the experienced forward calmly rounded Freddie Woodman before slotting home.
Six minutes later it was two, as Barnes cut in from the left to take aim, seeing his effort sneak in off the inside of the post.
Marc Albrighton could have made it three for the Foxes just after the half-hour mark, but he blazed his effort from just inside the area over the bar, and McCann produced a crucial block a few minutes later to deny Barnes at the back post.
McCann – who lined up at right wing back – then came up with the goods in an attacking sense early in the second half, getting himself on the end of a lovely floated cross from Andrew Hughes to head into the top corner.
There was a standing ovation on 63 minutes from the North End faithful as last season’s Player of the Year, Daniel Iversen came on for the visitors, and one of his first actions was to dive to his right to keep out a Jordan Storey volley.
It looked as though Barnes had doubled his tally for the afternoon ten minutes later, as he beat Woodman after being played in by Maddison, but he was denied by the post.
Riis had the ball in the back of the net at the other end on 75 minutes as he brilliantly controlled Browne’s missing volley and thumped the ball home, but the linesman’s flag was up for offside.
Goalscorer Barnes had the final chance of the game, seeing his close-range shot well kept out by Woodman, and the score ended 2-1 to the visitors in the final game of pre-season, with attention now turning to next weekend's Championship opener against Wigan Athletic.
PNE line-up: Woodman; Diaby (Storey, 45), Lindsay, Hughes; McCann (Woodburn, 70), Whiteman, Ledson, Brady; Browne, Johnson (Evans, 45); Riis. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Coulton, O’Neill, Potts.
Leicester City line-up: Schmeichel (Iversen, 63); Pereira, Fofana, Evans, Justin; Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall; Albrighton (Perez, 63), Maddison, Barnes; Vardy. Subs not used: Braybrooke, Nelson, Ewing, McAtee, Hughes, Appiah.
Attendance: 4,553 (470 Leicester fans).
Referee: Mr J Gillett.
Ryan Lowe was on the whole pleased with his side’s performance against Premier League side Leicester City as the Lilywhites played out an entertaining final pre-season friendly of the summer at Deepdale.
Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes struck early in an opening 45 minutes which Ryan felt was ‘okay in patches’, before the Lilywhites changed things up slightly in the second half – in which Ali McCann pulled a goal back – to the satisfaction of the gaffer.
Although North End could only pull one goal back in the second half, Ryan was pleased with the ‘fantastic test’ that the Foxes provided for his players.
He told iFollow PNE: “Second half was good, first half was okay in patches. We wanted to try [something] a little bit different in terms of the personnel in different positions.
“We gifted them two goals. The first one was a great goal by them, even the second one for their behalf, but for us we felt we could have dealt with it.
“We made a couple of changes second half, we were a lot better, on the front foot a little bit more. Without being disrespectful, I thought the first half we showed a bit too much respect.
“Second half we came out with a different attitude, a different style, different intensity, and we were well worthy of a goal and potentially another one chalked offside. Our mate Daniel [Iversen] has made a great save from a good strike from Jordan Storey.
“Really pleased with the second half performance and I’m more pleased now that we’re through pre-season without potentially any injuries.
“I thought the second half performance was fantastic in a different way, with another striker on the pitch.
“We’ve got to make sure that we give ourselves the best opportunity of getting results. If that’s making one or two changes and different personnel then we’ll certainly do it.”
Overlapping centre backs was a feature of North End’s play, particularly in the second half, as Andrew Hughes provided the cross for McCann’s header.
“It worked last season,” Lowe continued. “This season we’ve implemented a bit more of what we want them to do and how we want them to play. We’re asking them to be brave against a Premier League team but sometimes you can’t be too brave, you’ve got to be a little bit respectful.
“I thought they were fantastic at stepping in at the right times on the front foot. You can see the patterns of play we work on, on a daily basis, and getting involved and joining in.
“The more they do that, the better, because as you’ve seen, I think our goal came down the left-hand side from Hughesy doing it and joining in and a great cross from Ali. Really pleased overall with the performance, especially second half.”
North End appear to have come through their final outing of pre-season without any additional injury woes, as Lowe spoke of the players’ recovery period over the coming days and Monday’s open training session, ahead of next weekend’s league opener at Wigan Athletic.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re all alright Monday morning first and foremost.
“For them to get through it, the lads who only played certain amount of minutes was meant to be, we wanted to make sure they gave everyone the calculated numbers of what they need. We’ve certainly done that and hopefully Monday morning we’ve come unscathed.
“The lads will have a rest day tomorrow, recovery day, we’ve got our open training day Monday which will be slightly second day recovery, but we’ll do a little bit of tactics stuff maybe in the video anaylsis room and then we’ll work Tuesday right the way onto the week for the Wigan game.
“Really looking forward to it now, it’s obviously around the corner, a week away, and we just can’t wait.”
As for the friendlies
Hasta la Vista
2 Hours ago
@pnefc
Preston North End were narrowly beaten 2-1 by Premier League side Leicester City in the final game of pre-season.
The visitors had a two-goal lead inside 18 minutes through Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes, before Ali McCann got one back for PNE early in the second half.
It was a strong display from the home side in the second 45, but North End couldn’t quite find an equaliser.
The Foxes were the side on top in the early stages and they took the lead on 12 minutes, with Keirnan Dewsbury-Hall’s through ball finding Vardy, and the experienced forward calmly rounded Freddie Woodman before slotting home.
Six minutes later it was two, as Barnes cut in from the left to take aim, seeing his effort sneak in off the inside of the post.
Marc Albrighton could have made it three for the Foxes just after the half-hour mark, but he blazed his effort from just inside the area over the bar, and McCann produced a crucial block a few minutes later to deny Barnes at the back post.
McCann – who lined up at right wing back – then came up with the goods in an attacking sense early in the second half, getting himself on the end of a lovely floated cross from Andrew Hughes to head into the top corner.
There was a standing ovation on 63 minutes from the North End faithful as last season’s Player of the Year, Daniel Iversen came on for the visitors, and one of his first actions was to dive to his right to keep out a Jordan Storey volley.
It looked as though Barnes had doubled his tally for the afternoon ten minutes later, as he beat Woodman after being played in by Maddison, but he was denied by the post.
Riis had the ball in the back of the net at the other end on 75 minutes as he brilliantly controlled Browne’s missing volley and thumped the ball home, but the linesman’s flag was up for offside.
Goalscorer Barnes had the final chance of the game, seeing his close-range shot well kept out by Woodman, and the score ended 2-1 to the visitors in the final game of pre-season, with attention now turning to next weekend's Championship opener against Wigan Athletic.
PNE line-up: Woodman; Diaby (Storey, 45), Lindsay, Hughes; McCann (Woodburn, 70), Whiteman, Ledson, Brady; Browne, Johnson (Evans, 45); Riis. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Coulton, O’Neill, Potts.
Leicester City line-up: Schmeichel (Iversen, 63); Pereira, Fofana, Evans, Justin; Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall; Albrighton (Perez, 63), Maddison, Barnes; Vardy. Subs not used: Braybrooke, Nelson, Ewing, McAtee, Hughes, Appiah.
Attendance: 4,553 (470 Leicester fans).
Referee: Mr J Gillett.
Ryan Lowe was on the whole pleased with his side’s performance against Premier League side Leicester City as the Lilywhites played out an entertaining final pre-season friendly of the summer at Deepdale.
Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes struck early in an opening 45 minutes which Ryan felt was ‘okay in patches’, before the Lilywhites changed things up slightly in the second half – in which Ali McCann pulled a goal back – to the satisfaction of the gaffer.
Although North End could only pull one goal back in the second half, Ryan was pleased with the ‘fantastic test’ that the Foxes provided for his players.
He told iFollow PNE: “Second half was good, first half was okay in patches. We wanted to try [something] a little bit different in terms of the personnel in different positions.
“We gifted them two goals. The first one was a great goal by them, even the second one for their behalf, but for us we felt we could have dealt with it.
“We made a couple of changes second half, we were a lot better, on the front foot a little bit more. Without being disrespectful, I thought the first half we showed a bit too much respect.
“Second half we came out with a different attitude, a different style, different intensity, and we were well worthy of a goal and potentially another one chalked offside. Our mate Daniel [Iversen] has made a great save from a good strike from Jordan Storey.
“Really pleased with the second half performance and I’m more pleased now that we’re through pre-season without potentially any injuries.
“I thought the second half performance was fantastic in a different way, with another striker on the pitch.
“We’ve got to make sure that we give ourselves the best opportunity of getting results. If that’s making one or two changes and different personnel then we’ll certainly do it.”
Overlapping centre backs was a feature of North End’s play, particularly in the second half, as Andrew Hughes provided the cross for McCann’s header.
“It worked last season,” Lowe continued. “This season we’ve implemented a bit more of what we want them to do and how we want them to play. We’re asking them to be brave against a Premier League team but sometimes you can’t be too brave, you’ve got to be a little bit respectful.
“I thought they were fantastic at stepping in at the right times on the front foot. You can see the patterns of play we work on, on a daily basis, and getting involved and joining in.
“The more they do that, the better, because as you’ve seen, I think our goal came down the left-hand side from Hughesy doing it and joining in and a great cross from Ali. Really pleased overall with the performance, especially second half.”
North End appear to have come through their final outing of pre-season without any additional injury woes, as Lowe spoke of the players’ recovery period over the coming days and Monday’s open training session, ahead of next weekend’s league opener at Wigan Athletic.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re all alright Monday morning first and foremost.
“For them to get through it, the lads who only played certain amount of minutes was meant to be, we wanted to make sure they gave everyone the calculated numbers of what they need. We’ve certainly done that and hopefully Monday morning we’ve come unscathed.
“The lads will have a rest day tomorrow, recovery day, we’ve got our open training day Monday which will be slightly second day recovery, but we’ll do a little bit of tactics stuff maybe in the video anaylsis room and then we’ll work Tuesday right the way onto the week for the Wigan game.
“Really looking forward to it now, it’s obviously around the corner, a week away, and we just can’t wait.”
As for the friendlies
Hasta la Vista
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