Dave Seddon’s PNE pressview: Time to take stock of Preston’s start to season

Busy in the sense of four Championship games and three rounds of the Carabao Cup for Preston North End, strange that all but one of them were played in empty stadiums.

Even the one which wasn’t played behind closed doors – Norwich away three weeks ago – was limited to a crowd of 1,000.

In PNE’s case, we have already seen a home/away pattern emerge at this early stages of the campaign.

At Deepdale, they have lost both Championship games 1-0 to Swansea and Stoke respectively.

Mansfield were beaten in the Carabao Cup but two rounds later, North End bowed out to Brighton.

On the road things have been less bumpy, in fact Alex Neil’s men have looked very comfortable.

Victory at Brentford last Sunday followed the 2-2 draw with Norwich, both opposition highly fancied to be in the promotion race.

Don’t forget either the 2-1 win at fellow Championship side Derby County in the Carabao Cup.

So perhaps we should be reaching for the SatNav with glee when running the rule over forthcoming road trips.

North End being strong on the road is nothing new.

Last season, there was an emphasis from Neil on being better at home, that resulting in a record at Deepdale of 12 wins, four draws and seven defeats.

That contrasted with six wins, eight draws and nine defeats on their travels.

But in Neil’s previous two seasons in charge, PNE had fared well away.

In 2018/19, it was eight wins, 10 draws and five losses at Deepdale, with eight wins three draws and 12 defeats away.

The 2017/18 season, Neil’s first in charge, saw 10 wins on the road, eight draws and five defeats. At home it was nine wins, eight draws and six losses.

Those statistics show that North End knew how to get points away and that has been the case so far in this campaign.

Last Sunday’s 4-2 win at Brentford was both a thrilling and frustrating watch.

The frustration came in the first half as Preston somehow found themselves 2-0 down at the interval without playing badly.

Two pieces of naive defending saw them concede early and late in the first half.

Even though they had been slightly unfortunate, I doubt many of us saw the fight back in the second half coming.

It was great to watch, North End displaying a ruthless streak to them that we don’t see too often.

Four goals in 18 minutes against a side they had the most rotten of away records against, was some turnaround.

Neil often uses the word ‘aggressive’ in how he wants his side to play.

He is not talking about being over physical or going in two-footed, aggressive in this sense is being prepared to take on the opposition, run at them, press them, be quick in the pass and firm in the tackle.

North End were all those things against Brentford in the second half.

Patrick Bauer stayed up in the Bees’ box following a cleared set-piece, to help set up the first.

There was the tackle from Andrew Hughes on Bryan Mbeumo to win the ball and cross for the second – Scott Sinclair the beneficiary on both occasions.

Ryan Ledson drove forward to set up Brad Potts for the third – what a clever finish by the way from the midfielder.

Then there was the determination from ben Davies to win the header from Ledson’s corner to set up Sean Maguire.

Add to all that the PNE midfield getting on top of Brentford’s middle three.

Yes, the home side did lose the talented Christian Norgaard to an ankle injury early in the game.

But they were able to bring on Mathias Jensen to replace him, with Marcondes and Jay Dasilva in there alongside him.

Dasilva by the way could be a big-money sale down the line, an absolute unit of a midfielder who can play.

The one minus from last Sunday – and a big one – was the zero attendance figure.

I’ll continue to repeat myself on this subject but football without its fans is hollow and could ultimately destroy some clubs.

It is astonishing to hear that some Premier League games are being shown in cinemas – you can sit inside with your popcorn but not in the open air safely distanced from others.

The #LetfansIn campaign on social media is growing stronger due to some of the baffling inconsistencies in Government guidelines.

One of the reasons put forward for the continued ban of fans in the grounds , is concern over the mingling of fans on the way to games and outside stadiums.

What is the difference between folk being in the vicinity of a football ground and a supermarket?

Clubs have talked about introducing staggered arrival times for fans at stadiums which is sensible.

If fans want to see a game I’m sure they wouldn’t object in the slightest to being asked to turn up at a specific time. Even if it is much earlier than their arrival used to be, it is a small sacrifice to make.

As football tries to wade through the pandemic, the subject of B’ teams playing in the EFL got suggested again by Manchester City.

Utter nonsense. Which clubs lose their league status to make way for Premier League teams’ reserves?

It would dilute the league pyramid. Who could genuinely get excited about playing City or United’s reserves?

Perhaps Premier League clubs need to focus more on how their academies and reserve sides are set up.

Rather than packing their academies and then not being able to steer young players through a pathway to the first-team, narrow the searchand give them more of a chance.