Off Topic Friendlies 2019

Lost 1-0

 

Fleetwood Town 1 Preston North End 0

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A second half strike by substitute Ash Hunter gave Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town a narrow win as many of the North End side completed 90 minutes.

David Nugent played for 45 minutes on his return to the Lilywhites, 12 years since he last pulled on a PNE shirt in a competitive game at Highbury, but he was unable to record a win in his first game back.

After a slow first 20 minutes, with neither side in the ascendency and the goalkeepers untroubled, the Lilywhites started to gain a foothold and good play by Nugent down the right-hand side of the penalty area brought a chance, with his cross eventually collected by Josh Earl, who delivered back across for Jayden Stockley to cushion the ball down to Graham Burke, whose left foot volley was well blocked by Harry Souttar near the penalty spot.


And it was the same combination that almost brought an opener five minutes before half-time. This time an excellent harrying job by Josh Harrop won the ball close to half-way and he fed a ball into the penalty area for Stockley to cushion down for Irishman Burke, and the No.19 played a deft chip over Cairns in the Cod Army goal, but just over the bar and onto the roof of the net.

The greens had the ball in the net a minute later, through Stockley, after some excellent play involving Burke, Nugent and Darnell Fisher – making his first start of pre-season – but it was the right back, who crossed for the forward to convert, who was flagged for offside to rule out the goal.

But it was the home side who scored the opener just before the hour mark. Souttar stepped out of the backline and broke into the PNE half, before sliding the ball into substitute Hunter, who controlled and fired low under Connor Ripley into the left-hand side of the goal from 15 yards out.

Burke brought a superb stop out of substitute keeper Billy Crellin with 25 minutes to go; the attacker turning and shooting in one movement to curl a left-footed effort towards the bottom right corner until an interception from the Fleetwood custodian, who turned the ball behind for a corner.

In the final quarter of an hour, with the home side having made ten changes in total, North End pressed for an equaliser and an effort from skipper for the night Daniel Johnson almost forced a mistake from Crellin, however, he just managed to keep the 25 yards driven effort between his legs, when it appeared it might squirm through to level matters.

Louis Moult, on at the break for Nugent, tried an audacious chip from 50 yards that went past Crellin, but narrowly wide of the left-hand upright in the final two minutes as the visitors continued to press to the end.

Fleetwood Town line-up: Cairns (Crellin, 62), Coyle (Rydel, 73), Andrew (Sheron, 73), P Clarke (Eastham, 62), Souttar, Burns (Mooney, 73), Biggins (Madden, 62), McAleny (Sowerby, 62), Morris (Hunter, 23), Coutts (c) (Baggley, 73), Rossiter (Southam-Hales, 73).

PNE line-up: Ripley, Fisher (Rafferty, 73), Earl, Ledson, Storey, Huntington, Harrop, Johnson (c), Stockley, Nugent (Moult, 46), Burke (O’Reilly, 84). Subs not used: Crowe, Simpson, Walker, Armer.

Attendance: 1,920

Referee: Mr P Bankes

Preston North End’s final game of their 2019/20 Championship preparations sees the Lilywhites entertain Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United at Deepdale.

The game, organised at short notice after the appointment of Bruce into the St James’s Park hot seat, will see him take charge of the Magpies for the first time in England at Deepdale, in this 3pm kick-off.

Following Friday’s clash with Fleetwood Town, the remaining members of the squad not involved at Highbury are likely to start against the Premier League side, with their final chance to impress the manager in competitive action ahead of the season opener at Millwall next weekend.


The squad have come through pre-season to this point with no significant injury problems and therefore the manager will have a number of questions ahead of the trip to The Den and players could cement a place in the starting XI with a good display against the north east outfit.

Brad Potts and Darnell Fisher had been a little behind in terms of match minutes, but the latter got a first start on Friday evening and the former is likely to see more action on Saturday. David Nugent also got his first run out since his return at Fleetwood meaning he could push for some involvement against Neil Harris’ side.

The match official will be EFL referee Michael Salisbury, with the assistants of Ian Hussin and Connor Brown, whilst fellow EFL referee Graham Salisbury the fourth official – it will be Michael’s first game in charge of a game at Deepdale.

 

1-0 Fleetwood. Judging by the website, a rather lacklustre affair with Burke blasting over at any opportunity. I think players like Harrop would not want to get injured in a practice match. there will be a bit more energy against NU.

 

Preston North End 2 Gallagher 2 pens Newcastle United 1 Shelvey

PNE: Rudd, Clarke, Bauer, Davies, Hughes, Pearson, Gallagher, Potts, Browne, Barkhuizen, Maguire. Subs (unused): Moult, Rafferty, Simpson, O'Reilly, Walker.

Newcastle: (first half) Woodman, Schar, Fernadez, Dummett, Manquillo, Shelvy, M Longstaff, Aarons, Hayden, Ritchie, Muto.

(Second half): Woodman, Sterry, Fernández, Lascelles, Clark, S. Longstaff, Ki, Colback, Murphy, Almirón, Joelinton

Referee: Michael Salisbury (Lancashire)

Attendance: 4,982 (1,359 Newcastle United fans)

A soggy old afternoon for the last of the friendlies before the real stuff starts next week, North End duly won the game although there are still some issues to sort out, one is the keeper and the other major one is playing Maguire up front on his own doesn't work also on a personal view think Potts is wasted playing wide..

As for the match was a decent work out against two Newcastle sides they made eight changes at half time, first period took us a while to get going never looked remotely like scoring closest we got was when Clarke had an effort blocked for a corner.
United passed the ball around well Shelvey is a decent squad player certainly can pick a pass, thought the No 14 Manquillo? looked good had two efforts on goal both decent efforts.
The goal came from a free kick Shelvey lined it up and fired it in from about 25 yards whether it swerved or took a deflection, you can only say Rudd made a complete balls up of it.
Should have had a second on half time but Muto was way too greedy.

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United introduced a £60 million strike force and both played an immediate impact, Joelinton first major impact was to sniff the Lancashire grass being brought down in the penalty area, Almiron took it, everybody in the ground knew it was going to the kepers right, Rudd got it right saved.
Browne finally had our fiirst shot on target welll saved by Woodman, then came Gally's two penalties first for hand ball the second for a foul on Bauer. One left, one right 2-1.
Murphy caused us problems but apart from an Almiron shot United never looked like getting level. We played some decent stuff and Potts couldn't quite make it three with the last kick of the game.

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Plus points Bauer looks a good signing also good to see Barkhizen and Pearson playing

Negatives Keeper still probably needed,Potts wasted out iwde and Maguire cannot play on his own up front.