Dave Seddon's PNE pressview: An eventful week off the pitch for Preston North End

Craig Hemmings issued a statement on the way forward for PNE following the death of his father.

That was followed by a press conference in person with Peter Ridsdale at Euxton to cover more of the football side of things.

It’s good to talk the BT adverts used to tell us but the feedback from the fans later seemed to indicate the opposite in this case.

To be fair, there were few surprises in what North End chairman Hemmings or director Ridsdale wrote or said.

Quite rightly, there had been a period of quiet between the passing of Trevor Hemmings and any communication as regards the path ahead.

It would have been very disrespectful to expect otherwise, with the Hemmings being a family in mourning.

Craig Hemmings wrote of his father expecting them to ‘get on with things’ and that is what was being done.

He posed the question of whether the Hemmings family were as dedicated as Trevor Hemmings was to the on-field success of PNE.

Answering it, Craig spoke of continuing the legacy and detailed how he viewed things.

It was very much business as usual, things run along the same lines as how his father had done.

The financing of North End will continue from the Hemmings’ family companies, with the club operating on an agreed budget.

It was unlikely that there was going to be a change of course, no throwing of excess cash at it.

That might frustrate some who would wish to see things done a different way but the reality is this is the passing of the baton from one safe pair of hands to another.

How long the Hemmings family choose to be the custodians of North End, we simply don’t know.

I couldn’t see them wanting to offload with any haste, considering the money and time which Trevor Hemmings had invested in the club.

As we know though, running a football club is an expensive business and the time will come eventually for PNE to pass into the hands of other people.

I posed the question to Ridsdale at the press conference about future ownership and he admitted he couldn’t second guess it.

But it does seem that in the short and medium term, the Hemmings family will stay involved and honour the legacy.

The difference now is that there isn’t a red hot phone line from the Isle of Man to Euxton and Deepdale.

Mr Hemmings was not a silent owner in terms of how he wanted things done and the principles involved.

Although he wasn’t one for publicity, his staff – and particularly Ridsdale – heard regularly from him.

Craig Hemmings has the best interests of the club at heart. He is a football fan, having started watching PNE in the 1970s.

Long before his appointment as chairman in June 2019, he regularly attended meetings on his father’s behalf.

He represented the family name and will continue to do so going forward.

Ridsdale’s meeting with the media was more football related, the bread and butter stuff of results and recruitment.

It would be right to say that relations seemed strained between sections of the fanbase and Ridsdale.

If social media is any guide, there is plenty of disparity between his words at the press conference and how the fans are thinking.

Ridsdale gave strong backing to Frankie McAvoy and gave an explanation of how recruitment works at North End.

Just at the moment we are at the stage where supporters and Ridsdale might just have to agree to disagree.

Results going forward will determine a lot. If North End can find some consistency, things will quieten.

Consistency, or rather inconsistency, is the issue for PNE at the moment.

They aren’t in terrible form, the type of which delivers a manager’s head on a plate.

In fact 10 points from the block of six games between the last international breaks is not too bad going.

But, and it’s a big but, there’s the away defeats – and the manner of them – to Blackpool and Nottingham Forest to muddy the waters.

Both were poor in that rarely PNE looked like laying a glove on their opponents.

The emotion can’t be separated from a derby game, it’s one package, that day at the seaside being where a lot of the current anger stems from.

Wins over Luton Town and AFC Bournemouth, in particular the latter, suggested things were on a more positive track.

However, for how tactically savvy North End were on the south coast and executed a game plan almost to perfection, they were the opposite at the City Ground.

The loss of Patrick Bauer badly exposed them, just showing what a key figure he has returned to being.

You couldn’t take any chances with his Achilles, hence the 20th minute substitution. It was hard going on Jordan Storey playing in the middle of the back three, having previously looked solid on the right side of the trio.

Sean Maguire in my book was missed, injury limiting him to bench warming duty.

He gets the best out of Emil Riis, with Daniel Johnson unable to form the same sort of link.

Brad Potts coming from a bit deeper, missed that wonderful chance just before half-time at 2-0.

Whatever your thoughts of Potts, it was uncomfortable to hear some in the away end cheer when No.44 appeared on the fourth official’s board.

Scapegoating won’t solve anything, North End weren’t beaten because Potts missed that chance.

We will all have our own opinions about who should play and who doesn’t but let’s not turn on our own.

Support us and become a subscriber today. Enjoy unlimited access to local news, the latest football stories and new puzzles every day. With a digital subscription, you can see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Click here to subscribe.