Ben Whiteman: Preston North End's season as strong Paul Heckingbottom backing given
PNE finished the campaign with a 1-3 home defeat to Southampton
Preston North End captain Ben Whiteman admits he will reflect on the season as a case of what could’ve been.
The Lilywhites ended up finishing 14th in the Championship - six places and ten points better off than the previous campaign. However, the first half of the campaign saw PNE spend plenty of time towards the top. There was a big wobble after the turn of the year, and Preston were never able to get back in the play-off picture after falling away.
Reflecting on the season, Whiteman told the Lancashire Post: “Yeah, it's definitely a season that is disappointing, I think. There's no hiding that and I'm not going to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, we've done well, we've done this’. I think if you put yourself in that sort of situation, you want to capitalise on that. That's how we feel, that's how I feel and yeah, it is a disappointing one. But, you've got to bring realism to it as well.”
Whiteman did feel the final few weeks of the season were positive from an approach and mentality point of view. Recent campaigns have seen Preston finish poorly and really go out with a whimper. The number four didn’t see that this time around.
“100 per cent,” said the PNE skipper. “You look at the injuries that we've had as well over the past couple of weeks, and ironically our best spell probably came when a lot of the lads were injured around Christmas time as well. So yeah, credit to the lads, especially last week. It's a tough place to go, Bramall Lane, and I thought they thoroughly deserved a win as well.”
One thing that has been spoken about a lot in recent weeks is investment. Businessman Amr Zedan has been linked with buying PNE from the Hemmings family but as of now, there has been no further communication nor clarity over that situation. Whiteman has always defended the Preston boss and fully backs him to push the club forward, if added resources were made available.”
“Yeah, I've mentioned it, the manager's got a promotion out of this division,” said Whiteman. “I think people are really critical these days, especially on social media. You look at Alex Neil who got chased out of here; he’s just finished third in the Championship, one point away from getting automatics. There's got to be a realism about the place, I think that's the biggest thing for me. If the manager gets the budget that he wants, I'm sure we'll be right up there but again, you've got to be patient and stick by him.”