[themaclad]

Due to both sides inability to get through to the 5th round of the cup, the scheduled league match will take place on Saturday although Wednesday probably should be involved in the cup after their late collapse at Shrewsbury.
An interesting clash awaits, Wednesday have propelled themselves into the play offs with an 8 match unbeaten run since a defeat against Middlesbrough on 28/12/2015.
Last time out they defeated Brentford 4-0 although the Bees were reduced to 10 men early doors. They have a strong squad on the bench last time were Turner and McGeady. A non too shabby forward line including Forestieri who has about 14 goals this season, Bannan classy player and our ex one lace Wallace seems to be having a better than normal season and is always a decent taker of dead ball kicks.
However interestingly and well under the radar we have crept up the league to 11th, having spent only £50,000 on the team that won at Wolves last week. Strangely though we appear to be getting little credit from other fans on Social media, many of the so called bigger clubs supporters cannot understand why their expensively put together sides cannot beat in their words a poor/dire/s**t Preston side(delete as applicable), maybe it proves that you do not need to spend money to be successful, what we have is a squad that gets on together and plays for each other, we have no pre madonnas, we just play to our strengths, so beware Wednesday do not roll up on Saturday expecting to walk it, if you do you join the ranks of Derby, Hull, Wolves and Ipswich who have failed miserably since Christmas and the other bigger teams earlier in the season who have also struggled against us. (Rant over)
The Owls won 3-1 in the return fixture although we didn't help ourselves with some epic defending of the bad case. The Owls have sold their allocation of 5500 so a great atmosphere will be on the cards.
Team wise Gallagher was struggling on Saturday though expect him to get through this game, Pearson is now free of a ban, apart from that expect us to play our away formation on Saturday and try to catch Wednesday on the break.
For those Wednesday fans travelling there is an EDL march in the City on Saturday, so if you fancy a beer suggest you try pubs not in the City centre, safe travel to those arriving and till then may the best team win.

[Imre varadi]

Will you be there themaclad ? if so please reoprt in to our HQ after the game to give us your point of view  and if not your welcome on our match thread saturday morning as ive said so 

And your spot on i for one im not taking this fixture lightly as i nce went to a 3-3 cup draw at your old place and youre lot were in the publeagues and we had a team full of internationals and were in our golden era !! preston have punched above there weight ( or have they ) they seem to have got a team spirit like us and its refreshing to see that team spirit can still win you points against the gods of money !! and i say like us although we have been a bit naughty with the cash this year the players are all grafters and no prima donnas like the QPR and Cardiffs of this world   we have been very lucky in having a chairman that not only has cash , but has inteligence   and the players signed have been hand picked by the manager of all things 


Anyway all the best and just remember if you could give us three points and we do go up   you will have to follow us pretty shortly after or youll be on your own again with a ( no more said ) 

[themaclad]

Will be three try to put honest report on as usual, which should be on at around 7 pm

[St Charles Owl]

Disappointing game for us by the sounds of it. Had some decent spells but really didn't create anything clear cut, a few melee's and thats about it. Would like to see the FF bookings, both for stupid reasons and if justified then he needs to be standing in the dressing room and apologizing to the team!!! Thought we were having the best of it before he went off but that made it tough and when Garner got his goal it became very hard. Went for it with attacking subs but just wasn't to be.

Preston seemed to do enough to win the game, Westwood was needed for a couple of smart saves and they certainly had the better chances. No shame losing to one of the form teams at their place and form our perspective lets hope this gives us a kick up the arse to see us keep hold of a playoff spot!! Well done to Preston, you dreaming of the playoffs yet?? Certainly can consider yourself safe now!!

[themaclad]

Cheers SCO at the time of the sending off it could have gone anyway, suspect you were not at your best today, only eight points behind yourselves tonight and with no pressure the last 15 games could be interesting if we put a run of results together, saying that classic defeat against Charlton coming up on Tuesday.
Anyway here is my unbiased view of today game.

Well this season just gets better and better although what the result would have been if Wednesday had not been reduced to 10 men halfway through the second half we shall never know because at the time it was end to end stuff with both sides looking dangerous.
A large following from across the Pennines were in attendance, having shifted 5500 tickets the away following were in boisterous voice during a good first half. Wednesday started the brighter with the immense Nuhiu a menace in the air, the Wednesday front three also interchanged and had some super passing moves which caused North End's defence problems.
After the initial flurry North End started to look dangerous when they got the ball out wide were Woods and Cunningham got success.
Wednesday had a chance from a free kick but Wallace's kick was easily cleared.North End had the better chances with an early Garner range finder being easily saved by Westwood, before the Owls keeper pulled off a better save from Garner's header.
Woods had stolen in on the blind side and was narrowly wide with a pass com shot, Reach also blasted two efforts narrowly wide. However the best chance for the home side fell to Clarke who when clear from a Gallagher free kick put his shot wide. Towards half time Wednesday started to press.
A slow start to the second half with both teams cancelling each other out Wednesday had a chance to score from about 10 yards but the effort went over the bar. Nuhiu was well placed but looked to shoot but mis hit it and it was cleared, whilst Lees was only inches away from heading home across from Wallace.
Yellow cards started to be shown, one to Forestieri for diving, whether he did o not is anybodies guess but it was to prove pivotal when he deliberately hand balled a cross in the North End area. It took him about five hours to leave the field of play following his red.
Advantage North End, Wednesday changed formation to 441 to limit the amount of space the home side had but it did not take long to unpick them after a nice flowing move, Woods put in a super cross, defenders and goalkeeper did not go for it, Garner did though and his powerful header found the net.
Credit to Wednesday another formation change and they were now playing 324, Wallace tried to bring the ball back onto favoured left foot but was denied by Cunningham and then Wednesday's big chance Joao was denied by a fantastic tackle by Clarke when a goal looked certain. North End spent the six minutes of injury time in the corner flag area but still should have scored a second when Pearson stabbed wide but the points were ous.
Top game of football between two sides who gave everything. Finally the statistics say Wednesday did not have a shot on target.

Preston North End 1 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Att 16923

[themaclad]

Preston boss Simon Grayson:

"We're delighted, we knew it would be a tough test for us.

"We challenged the players to get a win to kick off this week with three games. Every single one of them carried out the plan we've worked on all week.

"When we had to defend we defended and we limited a top team to not having a shot on target."

Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal:

"The first yellow card is unbelievable because it was a clear foul to us and he gives a yellow to Fernando. If he doesn't go down he will be in front of goal in the area with a very clear chance to score. For me he didn't dive in that moment because if he did it was not a good choice. He blocked him.

"I am happy with the attitude of our players, they tried to win the game, but we are unhappy with the score of course.

"The fans were amazing again, the game was balanced, we both created chances and in the second half we looked as though we would score but the red card changed the game. Even with 10 players we took risks and the players fought until the last second to try and win the game."