[themaclad]

VENUE





LAST TIME OUT

LUTON TOWN 2 COVENTRY CITY 0



FORM GUIDE

PNE 4 LUTON 11

This match could bring the end of an era which seemed to have started to go downhill since 3/11/2019 following a win at Charlton Athletic, it was an odd weekend rumours were swirling around that Neil was on his way to Stoke as manager, the rumours were denied and North End duly won at the Valley and went top of the Championship. Since then performances to say the least have been patchy some of the home form has been woeful, all the opposition has to do is said back wait for our mistake and wham bam thank you mam, the visitors leave with the points. In contrast away from home we have won at Brentford and Bournemouth this season and took a point at Norwich scoring two, however in recent games Preston North End nil seems to be a common phrase.
Off the field we have signed some really good young players however for some reason Neil doesn't play them, club record signing Bayliss has barely featured in the two seasons he has been here, we sign Gordon one of the best young talents from the Premiership he does not play him apparently he wants to take players on and beat them which didn't seem to be a problem for managers who had Finney, Best, Mathews and Messi.
Substitutes seem to be random, two down on Tuesday brings on a right back to play him at left back, truly odd.
Rumours seem to suggest his time is virtually up and the lack of anything on the clubs website or Twitter account in the last 36 hours rings ominous.
However having typed that he's at the press conference
Get the feeling we are almost at the last chance saloon, similar feeling when Irvine was in charge dire safety first football with an inability to have a shot on target. Almost a similar scenario as to when Simpson took us to top place from then on in it was a downward spiral.
Following the Hatters visit the next three games are against Norwich, Swansea and Brentford in our form looks like a Eurovision vote zero points, and Luton is not a gimme game either.

The visitors pulled off a dramatic escape following the change of Jones's from Graeme to Nathan, we failed to compete down there in a rare match in front of spectators and got stuffed 3-0 with a James Collins hat trick. We will need to compete against a side with a decent away record personal vie is we probably may only need one win as I think the three at the bottom have gone, although they have games in hand the Millers need to win them and have been unlucky that they have been hammered by the virus twice
As I sad no easy game this however if last seasons game is anything to go by if Town get the lead they will waste time they were magnificent at it last season.
Any result like that the 3-0 hammering we got atb their gaff on Saturday will cause a Twitter melt down.

[themaclad]

The last game before the final international break is the 46th league meeting between Preston North End and Luton Town, when the Hatters visit Deepdale this Saturday.



The Lilywhites lead the head-to-head with 23 wins to the visitors’ 12 in the previous 45 games played, since their first league meeting back in September 1949.

Nathan Jones’ men have picked up some good results of late, their only defeats in recent weeks coming at the hands of automatic promotion chasers Norwich City and Swansea City.

For PNE, it is the first of back-to-back home games, almost two weeks apart, with the international break coming in between this game and the Good Friday game against table-toppers Norwich City in PR1.

Team News
Alex Neil is without skipper Alan Browne, who sits out the first of three games following his red card against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night.

He will join the injured on the sidelines, with Ryan Ledson and Greg Cunningham both needing late checks, whilst long-term casualties Declan Rudd and Patrick Bauer are out for the season.

Louis Moult is back in training, but is some weeks away from a return to action, after 18 months away from first team matches.

Luton manager Nathan has made one change for their midweek win over Coventry, with Glen Rea replacing Dan Potts, who was forced off the field with a head injury the previous weekend. George Moncur was also back amongst the substitutes.

Match Officials
Taking charge of his Saturday’s game is a referee who will be officiating his very first game at Championship level, Thomas Bramall.

This season he has refereed 26 games in in League’s One and Two, with 61 cautions issued and four red cards in those games. He has never taken charge of PNE before, but has done two Luton games away from home in League One in 2018/19.

He will be assisted by Mark Jones and Steven Meredith and the fourth official will be in that role at Deepdale for the second game in a row, Championship referee Jeremy Simpson.

[themaclad]

[themaclad]

0-0 HT apparently dire

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1 down Collins

[themaclad]

20 defeats
3 in a week
0 goals scored
A sacking gets closer

[themaclad]

An own goal from Preston goalkeeper Daniel Iversen was enough to extend their poor run after a narrow home defeat to Luton.

The Hatters forced the best chances of an uneventful game at Deepdale and found a winner inside the final 10 minutes when Iversen saved Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's header, but James Collins' rebound went in off the goalkeeper.

Luton goalkeeper Simon Sluga preserved the lead with only three minutes remaining with a fine diving save to keep out Sean Maguire's header.

Preston have now won only once in nine matches to crash out of the Championship play-off race.


Manager Alex Neil made five changes from Tuesday's 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough but it failed to spark any improvement from his side.

Until Maguire's late chance there was very little to show for Preston with Maguire having a shot from a narrow angle comfortably saved and second-half substitute Brad Potts seeing a late shot deflected wide.

Luton were much the livelier team with a half-chance for Elijah Adebayo on his left-foot well blocked and a shot from Dewsbury-Hall saved low by Iversen.

The Preston goalkeeper then produced an excellent save after the break, diving to his left to palm away Adebayo's header from James Bree's cross.

But Iversen couldn't keep out Collins' late effort as Luton claimed a first win at Deepdale since 1971.

A second consecutive victory for Nathan Jones' side, following Tuesday's 2-0 win over Coventry, saw them reach 50 points to almost certainly seal another season in the Championship.

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Preston North End manager Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"The basics at the moment we're finding difficult to do and that makes it extremely difficult to win any football match.

"I don't think it's for a lack of effort, the boys ran about and really tried but we're just not doing well enough.

"I haven't got a scooby-do what my best team is because what I get from one week to the next, god knows."

Luton Town manger Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties:

"I'm delighted because I came back around this time last year and since then the group have been absolutely outstanding.

"We're establishing ourselves as a Championship side and we've had targets of where we want to be and we're hitting every single one.

"We've kept moving forward and that's what we've got to keep doing because we feel we should be higher in the league."

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