[themaclad]

Bamber Bridge v Preston North End @ The Sir Tom Finney Stadium 7/7/2017


Here we go the start of our nine month journey to the Premier League begins at the home of Evo Stick North League 1 club Bamber Bridge.
These curtain reasons mean little except for a bit of early season match action, if they do what they have done in recent seasons most of the squad will get 30 minutes which means we will use upwards of 30 players. Given the arrival there may be a bit of urgency in the game and Knowing Brig there may be a crunching tackle or two.
If I can get of my backside may even go
Anyway here's what Steve Thompson has to say


Steve Thompson Says Players Will Be Looking To Impress

First team coach Steve Thompson took charge of training on Thursday, with new manager Alex Neil having a watching brief on his first day at Springfields.
The PNE boss will also watch from the stands when Preston North End get their pre-season fixture programme underway on Friday night against Bamber Bridge at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

And Thompson, who has guided the Lilywhites for their first week back in training says that the squad have come back in good shape: “Pre-season has changed so much since I used to play. Tom [Little] has given the lads their fitness programmes to do during the summer and they have come back in great shape,” he told PNE.Com.

“You can get the balls out almost straight away and start working on things, whereas before you wouldn’t see a ball for one or two weeks, but now we do things in the first two or three days and they have done great.

“They are all fit and raring to go and it is geared up for that first game against Bamber Bridge.

“We will probably give them two 45 minutes, two different teams, just to see how the fitness levels are, but the most important thing is not to come out with any injuries.

“First and foremost from these games, you don’t want any silly injuries. You want to try and keep the ball, work it and try and get your fitness levels up and in the 45 minutes play to your shape.

“With the new manager coming in we will be taking on board what he wants, what shape he wants to do and the work ethic has been there in training. It is an important fitness exercise and it is very early, but both teams will no doubt be looking to impress their respective managers.

“When the lads see the games coming up you have to make sure they are ready for it. They won’t be ready for 90 minutes yet; you can’t force that on them straight away, but you can get into good habits – as we have in training. We think they are up to speed and it gives them a chance to get into a matchday mode and with the games coming, we can tailor the training accordingly.”

The annual short trip to ‘Brig’ is one that Steve enjoys: “It is great that we are helping a local club,” he continued. “I have got good connections with Bamber Bridge because my lad used to play there and it is a great set up.

“Hopefully we can get a lot of Preston North End fans there, get a big attendance and it helps their coffers as well. It is a fantastically run club, it is great we are going down there and hopefully it will be a good match for both teams.”

The end to the summer off couldn’t come quick enough for one or two players, who have put injuries behind them.

The likes of Calum Woods, Greg Cunningham and Tom Barkhuizen, who underwent hernia operation just days after the end of last season, will be looking to show their hard work in the summer was worth the effort.

“The lads who had the injuries last year, including the two or three who had operations in the summer, they can join in the training where there is no physical contact. They will have been in over the summer, so they might actually be a bit ahead of the other lads.

“It is important that it is a clean slate for everyone and they will be out to impress the new manager.

“Every time you put a session on they are fantastic bunch here. They do not need the new manager to be training at a high tempo, but they will be looking to impress.

“They give you everything here, the players and the staff, and I am sure they will buy into the new manager’s work ethics and what he expects from them and with one or two more additions it can be an exciting season ahead.”

‘Tommo’ also paid tribute to the players and staff and their attitude during the past seven days, whilst he has steered the ship.

“It came as a surprise last week. I was on holiday until last Wednesday and came back in and it all started on Thursday.

“We lost three members of staff and we wish them all well, they have done great for us - Simon, Snods and Ian Miller.

“Nick Harrison came in to help and me and Kells have been taking things. We have been organised, we have tried to vary it as much as we can and every day we had meetings and knew what we were doing.

“It has flowed and we will now buy into the manger’s philosophy of what he wants to do,” he added.

[themaclad]

Won 7-0

[themaclad]

A useful workout last night in the July gloom at Bamber Bridge, an easy 7-0 victory against Bamber Bridge, although the result is not important the performance was. An early marker to impress new manager Alex Neil who had a watching brief in the stands.
North End played two sides making 11 changes at half time and in all used 23 players given an enforced change to keeper Rudd in the first half.
A couple of early shots didn't particulary cause Bridge keeper Rigby any difficulties, however it was the home side who had the best early chance with Carsley bringing out a good save from Rudd after Grimshaw was caught out of position miles up field.
From the resulting corner Rudd woeful punch caused problems buut the defence evenually scrambled the ballclear.
Rudd left the pitch with a slight thigh strain to be replaced by youth team keeper Callum Roberts.
North End took the lead from a corner when Davies headed home via a deflection.
From then apart from three shots by Linney which went wide Bridge faded from the game. May added a second and Robinson nodded home a third to give North End a comfortable advantage at the break.In truth they could have had more but we did miss some simple chances.
The second half team took a while to settle but once Barkuizen made it four after good work by Vermijl it was a stroll. Hugill chased down a lost cause to make it five.
We had chances to extend the score and finally did in the last ten minutes through Meulensteen and Hugill. Hugill was denied a hat trick late on by a good save by the keeper.
The majority of the squad got 45 minutes only misses were Harrop, Woods and O'Connor.

Although only a friendly the new gaffer has some interesting selection problems for the season ahead, still need a new central defender and possibly a right back. But we seem to have unearthed a gem in Meulensteen, the son of Man Utd's assistant manager. This lad has a bit of class about him.
All forwards scored except for Doyle but a useful workout none the less.

Bamber Bridge 0 Preston North End 7 Att 2185


Goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly praised the all round performance and commitment of the Preston North End players tonight after a magnificent seven in the first preseason friendly of the 2017/18 calendar.

Goals from Ben Davies, Stevie May Callum Robinson, Melle Meulensteen, Tom Barkhuizen and a brace from Jordan Hugill kickstarted North End's preseason schedule in impressive fashion with a 7-0 win against Bamber Bridge at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium - and all under the watchful eye of new boss Alex Neil who spectated proceedings from the stands.

Prior to the appointment of Neil earlier this week, it was Kelly and first team coach Steve Thompson who took the reigns whilst a new manager was appointed, and Kelly, who himself took to social media to confirm his commitment to the club stated his pride in the reaction of the players since the departure of Simon Grayson.

"It's the first competitive game of the season and it's tradition to play our first preseason game here and it's great to see so many tonight," told Kelly who is all too familiar with this preseason encounter.

"But more importantly, we've fielded two different teams and they've got 45 minutes under their belt and it's about building for that first game of the season.

"It's never ideal to lose a manager during preseason but myself and Tommo were here to serve the club and make sure the players were in the right frame of mind.

"It was a case of 'look, this is the schedule' and let's do it to the best of your ability, and judging by the performance tonight and how they've been the last eight days - they've given the manager something to think about.

"I've probably worked on and off with the club for 40 years now and I was born into this club especially when your dad has a giant face of himself in a stand.

"It's widely known that I'm born within a stone's throw of the club; hopefully we've done our part these past few days."

One minor negative during a night littered with positives was the injury to Declan Rudd, but Kelly is hopeful that the injury is not too much for concern.

He continued: "It came out of nowhere; It was his first kick - he'd done a 30 minute warm up prior to that and not felt a thing but that's football and let's hope it's not too serious and he's only out for a week or two."

Next up in preseason preparations is a six day training camp across the Irish sea to Cork, a venture in which Kelly believes will be extremely useful for the new manager to express his ideas.

"It's an ideal time for the manager to bed in his ideas and to get to know what he wants and what his playing style is going to be," he added. "All of those will be bedded within the players in this trip to Ireland."

[themaclad]

Stockport County v Preston North En @ Edgeley Park 15/7/2017

After spending the week at a training camp in Ireland, North End will return to action with a friendly at former football league club Stockport County.
The sides last met in a League Cup tie in 2011 whena very young North End side ran out easy winners 5-0 at Edgeley. Since then County have been in free fall and are now a part time club. The demise of the home side coincided when they were taken over by the owners of Sale Sharks Rugby Union club, it wasn't the best of marriages with the rugby club seeming to be the only winners.
The home side now play in the Conference North with their main local rivals being FC United of Manchester and that ever so plastic of non league clubs Salford City who are so non league they were have rumoured to offer our ex keeper Lindegaard a deal.
Now managed by Jim "Loose Cannon" Gannon they narrowly missed out on theplay off last season, they will be hoping for better this season.
As with last week expect most of the squad to get a run out although difference from last week is that this is Neil's first match in charge. Word is he expects us to attack more. Will be there matchblog possibly Saturday night.

[themaclad]

Stockport County vs Preston North End Preview

Preston North End's second game of their 2017/18 pre-season preparations sees them travel to Edgeley Park to face Stockport County

Jim Gannon's men provide the opposition as Alex Neil will take to the touchline for the first time as Preston North End manager, having taken a watching brief in the opening pre-season game at Bamber Bridge last Friday night, where the Lilywhites ran out 7-0 winners.

The team go into the game on the back of a full week of training over in Ireland and begin a run of four games in eight days, as they step up their fitness regime with the aim of being ready for the first game of the season against Sheffield Wednesday, at Deepdale in three weeks' time.

The new gaffer will only have Tom Clarke, Declan Rudd and Josh Harrop likely to be unavailable, the latter two only short term, whilst Calum Woods could be set for his first run out for 12 months following his cruciate injury suffered at Oldham last pre-season.

[themaclad]

A win in the new gaffers first game, although they were given a much harder workout by Gannon's Conerence North side. As with the game at Bamber Bridge two completely different sides played in each half although keeper Maxwell played the entire game.
A decent 1400 saw the game with about 400 from Preston, a few early getting to know you tackles were put in early on, North End looked more likely to score early on, but as shooting isn't one of our strong points, these effeorts were saved our ended up in the crowd. Couny slightly more direct had a gret chance early on when Huntingon was beaten by the bounce of the ball by Warburton who was in a great position until Hunts brought him down a nadgers away from the penalty area. The free kick was easily saved by Maxwell.
North End started to domnate down both flanks and with the impressive Robinson looking dangerous every time he got the ball, it only looked a matter of time until we scored, chances came and went and just before the half hour the home side scored, Stephenson looked to have been fouled in the area but manages to get the ball to Oswellwho fired home off the post. For a while the goal rocked North End and Stephenson should have made it two but a save by Maxwell and a block by Spurr denied him.
Parity was secured when Pringle(had a decent game) fired over a sexy cross, Barkuizhen beat the full back squared to Robbo 1 all. Before the next plane arrived Robbo's even better pass found Barkuizen and the lads were ahead by the break.
The first half team mentions to Pringle, DJ, Barkuizhen, but Robinson was excellent.
As for the second half it was dire, North End took a quick free kick which nearly lead to a Stephenson goal for Stockport, and a Browne shot which was well saved by their sub keeper before Browne sliced the rebound wide were the only highlights.
Nobody stood out and Doyle had a shocker

Stockport County 1 Preston North End 2 Att 1400


Neil On Positive End To A Great Week






Neil On Positive End To A Great Week

Alex Neil has pleased to end a great week with a win after the 2-1 win over Stockport County rounded off a productive week of training for the PNE boss.

Alex Neil was pleased to end a great week with a win after the 2-1 win over Stockport County rounded off a productive week of training for the PNE boss.

After a week of hard work and team bonding in Ireland, the gaffer took charge of his first game for North End and saw his side run out winners at Edgeley Park.

Speaking to iFollow after the game, the gaffer said: "It's been a great week, the lads have worked extremely hard and it's nice to finish it off with a game, especially that we won the game.

"To be honest the performance and the lads trying to implement all the things we've worked on this week are probably the most important things.

"I think the lads are going to be heavy legged, and not only that it's about tired minds as much as anything else but I thought they attacked it, they tried to implement the stuff that we had worked on." The PNE boss continued.

"I would still like to see us play forward a bit more in the dangerous but I don't think anyone could complain, certainly about the first half with the amount of chances we did create, we scored two good goals so it was pleasing.

The hosts changed formation at the break, and posed a different threat to the side, something that Neil was grateful for as it was a good test for his players.

"I had been working really hard on our formation so I hadn't really done a lot of work with the lads in terms of 3-5-2, so that was a good experience for them to have to try and adapt within the game and that's something we will cover before the season starts.

"I've only really had a week with them so it's about trying to bed in all of the bits and pieces that we want to try and achieve in terms of going forward and I think we saw glimpses of that in the first half."

[themaclad]

Morecambe V Preston North End @ The Globe Arena 18/7/2017
Accrington Stanley v Preston North End @ The Crown Ground 19/7/2017

A double header this week against two local league 2 sides both managed by nuggety Scousers.
First up Morecambe who will be hoping their off field problems from last season have disappeared. Fair play to Jim Bentley who has managed to guide them to a mid table position despite of the drama in the board room.
They survived financially with a bit of help from us buying the flying winger Tom Barkuizen for about 175,000 last season, it kept them afloat.
Morecambe fresh from winning the Bay trophy on Saturday with a 1-0 win over Lancaster take on a North End side who are still getting used to the new managers style of play, he does not like passes that go backwards. We seem to be playing a more passing type of play even from the goal keeper may take a bit of getting used too.
Be surprised if we have two different sides, suspect a smaller use of substitues.
Wednesday it's Accrington, surprised this is still going ahead given that we play them in the League Cup in a couple of weeks time.
Like Morecambe, Stanley have done well to survive in the league with gates that have never been good, but credit to manager John Coleman who has done a sterling job both times he has been manager of them.
Only going to Morecambe so only one match log will b e at Accie for the league cup tie.

[themaclad]

Won 2-0 Barkuizen and Pearson

[themaclad]

Morecambe 0 Preston North End 2 Att 974

As easy as you like for North End last night, two super goals by Barkuizen and Pearson won a low key friendly on a warm night by the seas in front of a crowd which consisted mainly of away fans.
Very noticeable last night that North End are now trying to play a passing style football even from the goal keeper, they domnated the early stages with the home side occasionally getting possession of the ball. Denied an early Hugill goal by a good save by that well known keeper T Rialist.
It took a while for the home side to get into the game but the danger seemed to come from Kevin Ellison who must now be close to 40 years of age, he's not bad for an old codger.
As I said we passed it about well although possibly could pass it faster than they did last night, we took the lead just about half way through the half when Barkuizen was given space in the inside left channel he seemed to flick the ball with the outside of his right foot passed the un named keeper to give us the lead.
Morecambe had one good chance to level but the home player lost his footing when well placed.
Second half Horgan fired narrowly wide before Pearson took aim and fired from 30 yards bottom right corner keeperf no chance.
A plethora of subs on the hour,we made 10 only Johnson played the full match, probably the best player on the night.
The last half hour lacked the fluency of the first 60, the second North End xi passed it around well but ever looked like scoring, the home side had a couple of efforts but didn't put Hudson under any real pressure.
Decent workout.

Neil: "There's Still Work To Be Done"


Although pleased with the endeavour and application shown from the players tonight, Alex Neil believes there's still plenty of room for improvement between now and the start of the season.

The boss chose a North End side for just the second time this evening after watching his first match from the touchline at the weekend against Stockport County.

Goals from former Shrimp, Tom Barkhuizen and Ben Pearson gave North End a 2-0 victory ensuring their 100 percent pre-season record remains intact.

Neil this time opted to start a side for the first 60 minutes, before swapping ten players for the final half hour, with Daniel Johnson the only man to play the whole 90.

"We're making steady progress," said Neil in his post-match thoughts to iFollow this evening.

"As the half wore on, we got better - I thought in the first 15 minutes of the second half was our best spell. We moved the ball well and dictated the play well, but I didn't think we were aggressive enough with our passing at times in the first half.

"I think we can play forward a bit quicker and I think we can be more adventurous when we've got the ball - but as you can see the lads are taking everything on board and they're trying to implement it.

"We were totally dominant in the game and we controlled the ball for pretty much the full match; created some good chances - so there's definitely some things to still work on but as a starting point I think the lads have done really well."

North End took the lead late in the first half, with Barkhuizen, returning to the Globe Arena since making the switch from Morecambe to PNE in the middle of last season opening the scoring with a tidy finish past the goalkeeper, and the gaffer praised the forward after making it three goals in three games.

He continued: "We've played Tom off the flank in each of the games and what he does well is drift in through the line really well. He's hard to pick up as he plays inbetween people - he's really sharp off the mark and finishing wise he's excellent so I'm really pleased for him."

With the games coming thick and fast now as preparations for the new campaign continue, Neil also outlined his plans to iFollow ahead of the next week or so.

"The lads played 60 and 30 tonight and the lads who played 30 tonight will play 60 tomorrow and vice versa; come Saturday, some of the boys will get 90 in there legs and it'll be similar on Tuesday, then we've got Fleetwood on Friday evening where they'll be more players with 90 minutes under their belt and then we'll crack on and get ready for the following week.

"In training you can replicate things as much as you like but the pressures of performing in a game and performing against a set up where you don't know what they're going to be doing is very different.

"I can set two teams up and they can play against each other in training but what tends to happen is all of the players adopt your style of play, but during the season we'll play against teams with different styles of play and it's how we adapt and cope with that - I thought our physicality tonight and dealing with straight balls and second balls was excellent and when we did get a chance we made it big and moved the ball well.

"It's pleasing where we are at the moment but we've still got work to do before the season starts."

[themaclad]

2 up approaching half time Browne and Robinson and for comedy value the refs friend Pearson picks up a pre season yellow