‘I don’t think’ - Freddie Woodman reflects on Preston North End’s pre-international break dip

The PNE goalkeeper speaks to the Lancashire Post after a testing few games at Leicester City and Ipswich Town prior to the international break
 Freddie Woodman Freddie Woodman
Freddie Woodman

It’s 09:03 and Preston North End goalkeeper Freddie Woodman apologises for being a couple of minutes late to press duty on Thursday morning. He has spent the past hour in the gym early doors. It’s time he values highly, with the aim to give himself the best chance of performing to the best of his ability, every single day.

Woodman is preparing for the visit of Millwall, a club he knows pretty well given his upbringing in the capital. A few of his mates are Lions fans too, though they aren’t making the trip up to Deepdale for Saturday’s early kick-off. It will be the Lilywhites’ first Championship match for two weeks, with the international break offering Ryan Lowe’s men the chance to digest their three consecutive defeats.

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For Preston’s shot-stopper, it is about striking the right balance between learning but not dwelling. Woodman is a larger than life character - always seen smiling and laughing - but he also takes his football extremely seriously. And so those 11 goals shipped against West Brom, Leicester and Ipswich, to go with the zero points, certainly hurt him. Getting back to basics and on track is paramount to him.

“I think it’s been little errors really,” said Woodman. “We came up against two decent sides.. like they are quality. Leicester, for me, they are going to be up there because they are fantastic and have Premier League quality. It is hard to go to places like that and be really expansive, you are going to get cut open. It was good (for an hour) and then one little error... those sort of players can punish you because they’re good. That is why they are at Leicester, so it was disappointing, but we haven’t looked back too much because we know before that we’d been fantastic. The Ipswich one was a bit different, with a few little errors that we made. On another day you come away and it’s been a different story, so I don’t think anything’s been wrong structurally.”

Woodman sets high standards for himself and is an ambitious individual. The 26-year-old has tasted the top flight of English football and surely strives to grace that stage again, one day. He was beaten by some excellent strikes over the course of the last 270 minutes: Darnell Furlong’s sizzler, Conor Chaplin’s cracker and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s perfectly placed finish. On a personal note, he isn’t kicking himself too much for any of the goals let in.

“Yeah not really, but for me I always look back at the small detail,” said North End’s goalkeeper. “I can really try and overthink it, so it’s been hard not to do that. But some of the goals have been decent, so it’s been difficult for me to do that. I always try and find the one percents or two percents where you can improve - that’s always been my philosophy.”

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And with the Sky Sports cameras in Lancashire for a half-twelve tussle with the Lions, Woodman is as fired up as ever. It’s a grueller for those making the trip up from London, but Preston’s number one is particularly fond of the early slot. Needless to say, he’ll be raring to go when the alarm sounds bright and early.

“I love an early kick off!” said Woodman.” It’s always my favourite time to play, so I’m looking forward to waking up on Saturday morning and getting going. It’s a little bit different in terms of your feeding times and that, but the staff here adapt and if you’re a footballer at this age, and you haven’t played a 12:30, then there’s something wrong really! But no, it doesn’t change too much.

With regards to it being his preferred kick-off time, he added: “I don’t like under the lights. No, it’s not that I don’t like it, but I prefer 12:30 because it’s a long time waiting for night games. You just want to go out and play. I love playing footy, so to wait all day to do it is long. I’m just pottering around the house, having a little nap; if we’re at an away game then me and Dai will play some games or something. You’re just trying to keep yourself busy.”

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