[Towinjustonce]

Change the formation / players to early and we would be saying that CC never gave our strongest formation / team a chance....

Disappointed with the result but we are further along than a lot of us expected. Brighton got hammered today and Cardiff won easy so who knows what that will do for there seasons. I didn't see or hear the game but for me it goes back to our squad not being big enough. It would take some team to get promoted with Nuhiu up top, although he works better in the team at the minute, Joao is not ready and Nuhiu won't ever score.... Play-offs is the best we can hope for and by some turn of luck an automatic place.

There will be many more peaks and troughs through the remainder of the games...it is totally wide open still, this week will tell a lot for us.

[Imre varadi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfCgLEsrDuw Heres our Carlos !! hell sort us out for tuesday ive no doubt , but its going to be difficult without forest .... Joao needs to start taking his chances when we are not 3-0 up !!!

Consilio take him out for a proper sunday roast & ale ( hell pay ) and start a fist fight !! this nipper needs to man up quick or we need to get another striker loaned in !

And themaclad im not your friend untill next week !!

[Towinjustonce]

By all accounts Joao had our best chance to score only for a last ditch tackle by Clarke. If this is the case then Hooper, Nuhiu and FF did fook all with there time on the pitch. Also Joao came on when we were down to 10 men so it's hard to get on his back in my view.

Agreed he should man up more and i do think we need a striker in on loan...

[Jacko The Flopsy Piglet]

Sounds like we played Preston at just the wrong time, with them being in really good form, and we could probably have escaped with a draw if we'd kept eleven men on the pitch and we'd probably have taken it and moved on. Having seen the highlights last night on C5, Forestieri definitely played a big part in his own sending off, although I reckon a different player might have got away with a talking to for the first incident but ref's know he's a bit theatrical and don't give him any leeway. Hopefully he'll come back wiser and will make teams pay, starting with Hull on Friday night.

We definitely need to get back to winning ways a.s.a.p. Forget this one result because all teams lose games you might not expect during the season but it's the whole campaign that matters not individual results. Teams get promotion because they put these results behind them quickly and start picking up points again straight away. The most consistent teams win in the long run, I hope that we're one of them.

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Also, we'd have won yesterday if PEI was still joining in!

[Imre varadi]

By all accounts Joao had our best chance to score only for a last ditch tackle by Clarke. If this is the case then Hooper, Nuhiu and FF did fook all with there time on the pitch. Also Joao came on when we were down to 10 men so it's hard to get on his back in my view.

Agreed he should man up more and i do think we need a striker in on loan...

I suppose it depends on how serious we realy are about going up ? to me signing another striker would back this up , but it would also pressure carlos who im sure wants one but hasnt found the right one yet !

and it was peiowls fault for being a mardybum i blame everything on him !!

[Was Wereham Owl]

Just watched the extended highlights, for me the card for handball by FF was ok, however , the first yellow for diving was the one the Ref got very badly wrong, he was bodychecked as he went past the defender in my opinion , but other than that we got what we deserved at the end !!

[Imre varadi]

After watching the highlights im absaluty f-cuking furious with the ref what a xxxx and he swung the game alright !! while chances where pretty even stevens !

First off all they should have been down to 10 men in the first half when lee was cleary karate choped from the waste ? and then to book forest for diving when he was clearly body checked is just taking the piss ? yet another ref that has fucked us up the arse this game goes down too for me !!

[Statesideowl]

I wanted to reserve commenting on the FF bookings until after I'd seen the footage.

As above I think it's right he should've received a yellow for the handball. Another yellow for being knocked over???? He plays a one-two with Nuhiu, in a good position for a crack at goal an gets pushed over making his way to receive pass. the ref is 6ft away so he had a great view of the Preston player stopping and lowering his hands, pushing them into FF's chest, deliberately blocking his run, The offending Preston player then turns to the ref and waves FF up!! And the ref responds with a nice card... nothing shady here at all lads.. it's all in the replay watch for yourselves..
Nothing can be done about it. It's not the first time Ref's have clearly been bias against us nor is there any recourse for such actions. I have absolutely had my fill this season with blatantly bias officials though. Each season DOES become progressively worse despite the new technologies we implement.

Until we have some sort of governing body that holds referees accountable. Whether it be incompetence or blatant cheating/ applying a cognitive bias to a professional sporting event. They will continue to do this with impunity.

Is it so far fetched to conceive of a scenario where a ref tells a friend to put X amount of money on a game he is officiating, then do everything in his power to influence that result?
No, it's not far fetched at all. Especially when, as I said. No one is regulating them, no one holds them accountable. And Warnock calls them up on the phone for a friendly chat now and again

Keep your head down and don't ask any questions.

[St Charles Owl]

Just watched the highlights and as others have said the yellow card FF received for diving was soft to say the least!! The contact was clear, the player moved across him to cause that contact and FF hardly made any meal of it!! I also wondered when I watched it that he may have been booked for asking for a yellow card to be shown to their player, which is technically a yellow card offence. The handball booking I had no issue with.

I don't mind refs making mistakes and to be fair to the ref the camera angle for the first booking is a much clearer angle that what the ref had to see the contact, but this is where he should be getting information from the 4th official and linesman who had a better angle like the camera did. I want to see a ref come out after a game and talk about the decisions that he made and justify them, which 99% of the time they can easily do, but I also want them to be able to say that with the benefit of hindsight and replays his decision was not the correct one. There is no shame in getting a decision wrong in the heat of the game and especially with the modern day pace of the game, but the refs are kept quiet and everything is kept behind closed doors. Our players and managers are far from perfect, they make mistakes every game, and we should not expect perfection from the ref either but we should expect honesty and accountability.

[madsteve]

Reality Check!

Anyone that had been following Preston's form over the last three months knew this would be a tough test but we never really competed fully and shot ourselves in the foot.

While CC stuck with the same eleven, we set up first half 442 which meant that Preston dominated meaningful possession by playing 352. We had possession in our own half but next to nothing in the critical areas. The fact that Westwood had our most touches says it all.

Westwood made a couple of smart saves to keep us level by half time.

Second half, it appeared that FF was given a freer role to float into the 4321 formation and we started to look brighter. FF was given an unfortunate yellow card for simulation when he was body checked but exaggerated the fall. Hardly surprising as it was his third yellow for simulation by this referee so he should have been more careful. Even worse, already on a yellow card, he tried to punch the ball in for a clear yellow card.

We had just started to get the upper hand but momentum turned and once Garner put Preston in front, they defended the game well with only slight half chances to show for our efforts.

Westwood - 7
Hunt - 6
Lees - 6
Sasso - 6
Pudil - 6
Wallace - 6
Lee - 5
Bannan - 6
FF - 5
Hooper - 6
Nuhiu - 6
.......................
Joao - 6
McGugan - 6
Matias - 6

Stat Attack:

Goals: 0

Assists: 0

Touches: 73 - Westwood, 60 - Pudil, 59 - Bannan, 49 - Wallace, 46 - Lees, 40 - FF, Nuhiu, 37 - Sasso, 36 - Hunt, Hooper, 29 - Lee, 12 - Joao, McGugan, 6 - Matias

Tackles: 4 - Pudil, 3 - Lees, 2 - Bannan, Lee, FF, Nuhiu, 1 - Wallace, McGugan, Joao

Interceptions: 4 - Sasso, 3 - Pudil, 1 - Hunt, Lees, Wallace, Lee, FF

Clearances: 6 - Pudil, 2 - Sasso, Lees, Nuhiu, 1 - Westwood, Hooper

Attempts: 1 - Lees, Pudil, Wallace, Bannan, FF, Hooper, Nuhiu, Joao

Attempts On Target: 0

Key Passes: 1 - Hunt, Pudil, Wallace, Bannan, FF, Nuhiu

Dribbles: 1 - Wallace, McGugan

Dispossessed: 3 - Wallace, Hooper, 2 - Lee, 1 - Pudil, Bannan, FF

Bad Control: 3 - Hooper, 2 - FF, Nuhiu, 1 - Wallace, Lee, Matias, Joao

Crosses (Accurate in brackets): 12 - Wallace (4), 4 - Pudil (1), 2 - Bannan (1), Hunt (0), 1 - Nuhiu (1), Hooper (0)

Passing Accuracy (Total Passes in Brackets):

Lee - 86% (22)
McGugan - 80% (10)
Sasso - 79% (29)
Wallace - 79% (28)
Bannan - 78% (51)
Hooper - 77% (26)
Pudil - 77% (39)
FF - 72% (32)
Lees - 65% (37)
Hunt - 61% (31)
Nuhiu - 60% (30)
Joao - 44% (9)
Matias - 40% (5)
Westwood - 39% (39)

We now face QPR without FF so CC has to decide who to bring in in that position or whether he changes to formation. Think he made a mistake going 442 first half but it probably would have worked overall as we were just getting the ascendancy when FF got himself sent off. We have the quality to win without FF but it will be a lot tougher, particularly as QPR have improved in recent weeks.

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Just watched the highlights and as others have said the yellow card FF received for diving was soft to say the least!!  The contact was clear, the player moved across him to cause that contact and FF hardly made any meal of it!!  I also wondered when I watched it that he may have been booked for asking for a yellow card to be shown to their player, which is technically a yellow card offence.  The handball booking I had no issue with.

I don't mind refs making mistakes and to be fair to the ref the camera angle for the first booking is a much clearer angle that what the ref had to see the contact, but this is where he should be getting information from the 4th official and linesman who had a better angle like the camera did.  I want to see a ref come out after a game and talk about the decisions that he made and justify them, which 99% of the time they can easily do, but I also want them to be able to say that with the benefit of hindsight and replays his decision was not the correct one.  There is no shame in getting a decision wrong in the heat of the game and especially with the modern day pace of the game, but the refs are kept quiet and everything is kept behind closed doors.  Our players and managers are far from perfect, they make mistakes every game, and we should not expect perfection from the ref either but we should expect honesty and accountability.

There are no issues with referee honesty in the English game but there are issues with competence & accountability. There are problems with the governance of professional referees since Mike Riley took over PGMOL. It appears that he has his favoured referees and marginalises other referees. He has also removed match assessors and reduced referee training, meaning that the quality of referees coming through is not as good as it should be.

The lack of quality of referees coming through means that inadequate referees keep their high profile positions. There are at least three PL referees who should be dropped but there is no-one to replace them with now.