[themaclad]

Just a timely reminder of those crappy songs you used to get when abroad, you know the ones, ear worms for weeks

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1 up Ledson

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1 all

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Getafe 2-1

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Match Report: Getafe 2 PNE 1


Hundreds of PNE fans were in attendance in Spain as Ryan Lowe’s side were beaten 2-1 by Getafe.

North End had gone ahead inside the opening two minutes of the game through Ryan Ledson, but two goals from Gastón Álvarez Sosa in the second half turned the tie around.

The PNE fans were still arriving in their numbers from Benidorm when Ledson turned the ball home, with Robbie Brady’s cross from the right being met at the back post by the central midfielder to open the scoring early.

Brady was involved again on five minutes, sending in another great cross, which Brad Potts sliced over the crossbar.

Republic of Ireland international Brady went into the book on 31 minutes after one of his challenges led to a bit of a melee by the North End touchline, in a half where decisions didn’t go the way of the side in red.

Getafe created a couple of chances after the hydration break just after the half-hour mark, with Carles Aleñá being denied by Freddie Woodman, before Sosa headed over in injury time.

Sosa scored early in the second half, though, as a Getafe free-kick was blocked but not cleared, and the central defender slammed home when the ball fell to him.

PNE made wholesale changes on the hour mark, with everyone but Ben Woodburn and Ben Whiteman being replaced.

Getafe came close to taking the lead just a couple of minutes later, with a flicked header from a corner going across the face of goal and bouncing back out off the post, before being cleared.

Sosa then scored the winner for his side six minutes from time, winning the header from the corner and beating Cornell.

PNE thought they’d got an equaliser late on through Alan Browne with a clever backheeled finish, however he was flagged offside.

PNE line-up: Woodman (Cornell, 60); Storey (Diaby, 60), Lindsay (Bauer, 60), Hughes (Cunningham, 60); Potts (Olosunde, 60), Whiteman (Amaral, 73), Ledson (McCann, 60), Brady (Coulton, 60); Johnson (Browne, 60), Woodburn (O’Neill, 73); Riis (Evans, 60).

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Team and fans united

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After returning from Spain on Thursday evening, Preston North End will make the short journey to face Accrington Stanley on Saturday afternoon.

PNE enjoyed a productive week in Alicante, training in the warm weather conditions, as well as taking on La Liga side Getafe at Campoamor.

The Wham Stadium is the setting on Saturday, though, as North End take on John Coleman’s side for a 3pm kick-off.





League One side Accrington Stanley have set themselves up a tricky pre-season schedule to prepare for the new campaign, facing sides in the Championship and higher.


They kicked off their preparations with a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace, while last weekend they played two games of 60 minutes against Blackburn Rovers, winning the first 1-0 before losing 2-0 in the second. They also came out on top against Stoke City on Wednesday evening.

For North End, this will be the fourth game of their pre-season schedule and the last one away from home, with a double header at Deepdale coming up next week against Hearts and Leicester City.

Everyone appears to have returned to Euxton unscathed following the training camp in Spain, with the only first team absentee being striker Sean Maguire.


Accrington Stanley F.C.,[38] entered the Football League in 1921 with the formation of the old Third Division (North); after haunting the lower reaches of English football for forty years, they eventually resigned from the League in 1962, due to financial problems, and folded in 1965. The club was reformed three years later and then worked its way through the non-league divisions to reach the Nationwide Conference in 2003. In the 2005–06 season, Stanley, after winning against Woking with three matches to spare, secured a place back in the Football League and the town celebrated with a small parade and honours placed on senior executives of the team. One of the teams relegated— and thus being replaced by Stanley—were Oxford United, who was voted into the Football League to replace the previous Accrington Stanley. The football stadium is called the Crown Ground. Until the 2012–13 season, when Fleetwood Town entered the league, Accrington was the smallest town in England and Wales with a Football League club.[39]

Accrington Stanley Football Club has had its own pub in the town, the Crown, since July 2007.[40]

The Crown ground still talks about Liam Grimshaw's run into the wall at the League Cup tie many years ago, Thomas scored against them in a friendly last season, two weeks until the start of the season and new signings not in sight, time to get them in

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Match Report: Accrington Stanley 0 PNE 1

Emil Riis’ first goal of pre-season was enough to earn Preston North End a 1-0 victory away to Accrington Stanley.

Daniel Johnson had seen a penalty saved with the score at 0-0, but he turned provider for Denmark international Riis on 38 minutes.

PNE probably couldn’t believe they didn’t take the lead in the opening 20 minutes, and it was eventual goalscorer Riis to have the first chance of the game, firing wide from six yards on the end of Robbie Brady’s cross.

North End then had a penalty on 17 minutes, with Ched Evans doing very well to beat his man before being brought down by the goalkeeper, but Johnson’s spot kick was kept out by Lukas Jensen.

Evans then had a chance himself a few moments later, on the end of a brilliant team move with Brady at the heart of it, however Jensen was again equal to it.

PNE did have their goal on 38 minutes, though, as a well-contested Browne header sent Johnson away and he selflessly laid the ball across to Riis, who slotted home first time with his right foot.

Brad Potts saw a long-range effort saved just before half-time, while substitute goalkeeper Toby Savin then denied Browne from distance inside two minutes of the second period.

At the other end, Freddie Woodman’s first meaningful save of the game came on 65 minutes, as he flew to his left to tip Tommy Leigh’s powerful effort round the post.

In a second half full of changes, there were few chances of note, with Liam Lindsay having the last opportunity of the game, heading over with just a few minutes left on the clock.

Accrington Stanley line-up: Jensen (Savin, 45); Sangare (Rodgers, 66), Rich-Baghuelou, Astley, Clark (Nolan, 74); Coyle, Hamilton (Pell, 67); Lowe (Longelo, 56), Pritchard (Leigh, 56), McConville (Whalley, 56); Bishop (Adedoyin, 56). Subs not used: Conneely, Martin, Procter, Perritt.

PNE line-up: Woodman (Cornell, 66); Diaby (Storey, 66), Bauer (Lindsay, 56), Cunningham (Hughes, 56); Potts (Olosunde, 74), Ledson (Whiteman, 56), Browne (McCann, 56), Johnson (Woodburn, 66), Brady (Coulton, 66); Evans (Amaral, 82), Riis (O’Neill, 82).

Attendance: 1,897 (1,014 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr D Webb.

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Heart of Midlothian Football Club, commonly known as Hearts, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Professional Football League. Hearts, the oldest and most successful football club in the Scottish capital,[3] was formed in 1874, its name influenced by Walter Scott's novel The Heart of Midlothian.[4] The club crest is based on the Heart of Midlothian mosaic on the city's Royal Mile; the team's colours are maroon and white.[4]

Hearts have played home matches at Tynecastle Park since 1886.[5] After converting the ground into an all-seater stadium in 1990, it now has a capacity of 19,852[1] following the completion of a rebuilt main stand in 2017. They have training facilities at the Oriam, Scotland's national performance centre for sport, where they also run their youth academy.[6]

Heart of Midlothian have won the Scottish league championship four times, most recently in 1959–60, when they also retained the Scottish League Cup to complete a League and League Cup double – the only club outside of the Old Firm to achieve such a feat.

The club's most successful period was under former player turned manager Tommy Walker from the early 1950s to mid 1960s. Between 1954 and 1962 they won two league titles, one Scottish Cup, and four Scottish League Cups, and also finished inside the league's top four positions for 11 consecutive seasons between 1949–50 and 1959–60. Jimmy Wardhaugh, Willie Bauld and Alfie Conn Sr., known as the Terrible Trio, were forwards at the start of this period with wing half linchpins Dave Mackay and John Cumming. Wardhaugh was part of another notable Hearts attacking trinity in the 1957–58 league winning side. Along with Jimmy Murray and Alex Young,[7] they set the record for the number of goals scored in a Scottish league winning campaign (132). In doing so, they also became the only side to finish a season with a goal difference exceeding 100 (+103).

Hearts have also won the Scottish Cup eight times, most recently in 2012 after a 5–1 victory over Hibernian, their local rivals.[8] All four of Hearts' Scottish League Cup triumphs came under Walker, most recently a 1–0 victory against Kilmarnock in 1962. Their most recent Scottish League Cup Final appearance was in 2013, where they lost 3–2 to St Mirren.

In 1958, Heart of Midlothian became the third Scottish and fifth British team to compete in European competition. The club reached the quarter-finals of the 1988–89 UEFA Cup, losing to Bayern Munich 2–1 on aggregate.

Heart of Midlothian are one of two full-time professional football clubs in Edinburgh, the capital and second largest city in Scotland.[185] Hearts' average attendance during the 2019–20 season was 16,750.[186] Important matches, particularly the Edinburgh derby, European fixtures and games against the Old Firm, always see Tynecastle at or very close to full capacity.[184]

The Hearts Song was written and performed by Scottish comedian Hector Nicol, a St Mirren fan. A new modern Hearts Song, performed by "Colin Chisholm & The Glasgow Branch", has been played before matches at Tynecastle in recent seasons, though the original version returned for the 2019–2020 season. In 2020–2021 the modern version once again replaced the oldest.

The folk-anthem "There will always be Heart of Midlothian" by songwriter Neil Grant has been played regularly at Tynecastle Park since 2018. At the request of the Foundation of Hearts, Neil performed the rousing track live at Tynecastle during the Ladbrokes Premiership match against St Johnstone on 26 January 2019. The track gained additional exposure after being played on the BBC's popular Off the Ball radio series.[citation needed]

Hearts have many celebrity fans including Stephen Hendry, the late Ronnie Corbett, Ken Stott, Alex Salmond, Sir Chris Hoy, Wattie Buchan, Eilidh Doyle, Lee McGregor, Andrew Oldcorn, Gavin Hastings, Martin Geissler, Nicky Campbell, Grant Hutchison and the late Scott Hutchison.[187][188][189][190][191]

Hearts were featured in the second season of Succession, where the team is bought by the character Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) who, in an attempt to impress his father Logan (Brian Cox), mistakenly buys the Edinburgh rival of Logan's actual favourite team, Hibs.

MANAGER

Robbie Neilson

Coaching career
Hearts
On 31 August 2013, Neilson returned to Hearts as their development team (under-20s) manager.[33] The side lost the Scottish Youth Cup final to Rangers on penalties in 2014.[34]

New club owner Ann Budge promoted Neilson to the head coach position, working for director of football Craig Levein in May 2014.[35] Neilson's first official match in charge was a 3–1 home defeat of Annan Athletic in the Scottish Challenge Cup on 26 July.[36] Hearts began the 2014–15 Scottish Championship with five straight wins, including victories against Rangers and Hibernian.[37][38] His team remained undefeated for their first 20 leagues matches until a 3–2 home defeat to Falkirk ended their run on 24 January 2015.[39]

Neilson won the Championship manager of the month awards for August,[40] October,[41] November[42] and March.[43] Hearts clinched the league championship and promotion to the Scottish Premiership, at the first attempt, on 22 March.[44] They finished the season 21 points ahead of nearest challengers, city rivals Hibernian, and 24 points ahead of third-placed Rangers. Neilson was shortlisted for PFA Scotland Manager of the Year,[45] but lost out to John Hughes of Inverness CT.[46]

Hearts finished third in the 2015–16 Scottish Premiership, qualifying for the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.[citation needed] In November 2016, it was reported that Neilson had agreed to move to Football League One club Milton Keynes Dons, subject to a compensation agreement between the clubs.[47]

Milton Keynes Dons
On 2 December 2016, Milton Keynes Dons confirmed that Neilson had been appointed as manager, as well as his assistant manager at Hearts, Stevie Crawford. The club confirmed Neilson would take charge following the club's FA Cup game against Charlton Athletic.[48] In his first league game in charge of Milton Keynes Dons, he recorded a 1–0 home win against AFC Wimbledon.[49]

After a run of one win in 11 league games, Neilson left Milton Keynes Dons by mutual consent on 20 January 2018.[50] The team had fallen into 21st place, inside the relegation zone.[50]

Dundee United
Neilson was appointed head coach of Scottish Championship club Dundee United in October 2018 with a contract running until the end of the 2019–20 season.[51][52] Neilson expressed confidence that he could repeat his achievement at Hearts and lead Dundee United to promotion to the Scottish Premiership.[52] Dundee United's chairman Mike Martin stated that Neilson was the "outstanding candidate" to emerge from "a long list of impressive applications" for the post and expressed delight at his accepting the offer to take up the post.[52] Neilson's first match in charge saw United defeat Partick Thistle 2–1 at Firhill.[53] At the end of Neilson's first season, United missed out on promotion to the Premiership after losing to St Mirren in the play-off final.[54] He led the side to the Scottish Championship title the following season, which was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[55]

Hearts (second spell)
Neilson returned to Hearts, who had been relegated to the Scottish Championship after the curtailed 2019–20 season, in June 2020. He signed a three-year deal.[55] On 31 October he led them to the 2019-20 Scottish Cup Final after 2–1 victory over rivals Hibernian, thus making them finalists for the second consecutive season;[56] the final was lost on penalties to Celtic on 20 December after a 3–3 draw.[57]

Neilson's team secured the Championship title with three games remaining on 10 April 2021 after contenders Raith Rovers and Dundee drew.[58] He was the division's Manager of the Month in December and April.[59]

Neilson led hearts to an opening day victory over Celtic in the 2021-22 Scottish premiership. Hearts would follow this up with a 2-1 away win over St Mirren, their first win at St Mirren Stadium in the league for over a decade.[60] Hearts early season league form would continue with a 2-0 victory over Dundee United at Tannadice on matchday 4 [61] seeing Neilson named Scottish Premiership manager of the month for August. A last gasp equaliser at Ibrox against Rangers would see Hearts stretch their unbeaten run in top flight games to 9 games.[62] Neilson's Hearts were eventually beaten 2-1 away from home by Aberdeen on Saturday 30th October [63] having managed to go unbeaten for the full first round of fixtures for the first time since the 2005–06 season.

Neilson would once again lead hearts to a Scottish Cup Semi-Final against rivals Hibernian for the 2nd time in 3 seasons following a 4-2 win over St Mirren at Tynecastle[64] in the Quarter Finals. Hearts would defeat Hibernian 3-1 at Tynecastle in the final League game before the split, cementing 3rd place in the league in their first season following promotion for the 2nd time under Neilson while condemning their Rivals to the bottom 6.[65] Just 7 days later, Hearts would once again defeat Hibernian 2-1 in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final[66] at Hampden Park for the 2nd time in 18 months, setting up a 2nd Scottish Cup Final appearance since Neilson's return, this coupled with their league position guaranteeing a return to European group stage football for the first time since the 2004-05 season, a campaign in which Neilson played.




Still no signings first visit to the venue of broken dreams this season

[themaclad]

Preston North End 2 Woodburn, Browne Hearts 1 Haring pen

In the main an entertaining game which we probably did enough to deserve the win we got, good to be back at Deepdale although the lack of beer was a bit of a blow inside the ground, first time ever for a glass of wine before the game.
Pitch looked in super condition and a decent support from our visitors gave the ground a bit of atmosphere

We were pinned back in the early stages but once we got into the game we looked decent, fast passing, speed on the break not things you would normally expect from us, interesting to see both Storey and Hughes two of the centre backs ending up in advanced forward positions.
Should have taken an early lead following some woeful defending by Hearts but Woodburn delayed too long and a defender and keeper denied him.
Hearts should have taken the lead on the half hou , great move from defence to attack Boyce denied by Woodman, probaly should have scored, within a couple of minutes we did. Storey with the ball at the Hearts corner flag, found Potts not the greatest cross but it found Woodburn who was barracked by Hearts fans all night, his effort beat Gordon 1 up

One substitution at half time Johnson for Brady who looked good going forward however have my reservations whether he is a wing back.
First ten minutes of the second peiod we were excellent, Woodburn went close again then out of the blue they equalised, Sibbick went on a lengthy run avoiding all efforts to hack him down, ball to Boyce in teh area and he was felled by Hughes looked a penalty all day long, Haring sent Woodman the wrong way.
A flurry of substitutions and one of them Browne scored from about 12 yards out after a move down the left hand side, he should have buried it, mishit it and it dribbled in off Gordon.
One other chance a shot from outside the box which Woodman didn't see flashed the wrong side of the post, there wer a few crunching tackles, a couple of bookings and a visiting fan was ejected from the ground.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey (Diaby, 69), Lindsay (Cunningham, 78), Hughes (Bauer, 78); Potts, Whiteman (Amaral, 88), McCann (Browne, 69), Woodburn (O’Neill, 86), Brady (Johnson, 45); Riis, Evans (Ledson, 75). Subs not used: Cornell, Coulton.

Hearts line-up: Gordon; Sibbick (Halkett, 77), Neilson (Kingsley, 45), Cochrane; Atkinson (Smith, 56), Haring, Grant (Mackay-Steven, 70), Halliday (Rowles, 56); Forrest, Boyce, McKay. Subs not used: Stewart.

Attendance: 3,286 (513 away).

Referee: Mr P Bankes.

A couple of signings wouldn't go amiss, some useful performances last night but we looked quite promising with Loweball

Fantastic

https://www.pnefc.net/news/2022/july/rya...s-victory/