Dave Seddon's Preston North End press view: Football hit by Omicron's two-footed tackle

Preston North End’s visit to Millwall was among the first set of casualties, the plug pulled on Wednesday teatime after a round of positive cases at the South London club.

Things fell like a pack of cards on Thursday - every refresh of my Twitter timeline seemed to bring news of another postponement - and on Friday.

All levels were hit, from the Premier League big boys to League Two, with around half the programme called-off.

With the UK facing a rapid spike in this latest variant and with testing ramped-up, postponed games look set to be the norm for a period.

Hopefully it will be a relatively short one if the thinking about a steep rise and a quicker fall does in fact materialise.

But football is certainly spooked at the moment, so too society in general – weary after nearly two years of this damn virus.

I was looking forward to the pre-Christmas trip to Millwall, so too were plenty of North End supporters.

London visits are always popular, attracting larger than normal followings for the distance involved.

But earlier in the week the appeal of the trip took a bit of a wane for me.

The train down and game weren’t a problem, it was more the prospect of being shoehorned on a packed underground train getting across London.

Nose to nose with several strangers in a train carriage wasn’t the best thing a week before Christmas.

Wednesday’s call-off took that prospect off the table and we await a date for the rearranged game.

At least PNE got some notice on this occasion, not that it will be easy for fans to claim refunds on trains.

Watford’s game at Burnley fell at a couple of hours notice on Wednesday night.

Those Hornets fans who were heading to Turf Moor will have been well on with their journeys by then.

That kind of scenario might well repeat itself if games going ahead are dependant on PCR tests coming back from the lab.

What I welcomed from the EFL on Thursday in light of the growing list of postponements, was their clarification on the number of players needed to allow a game to be played in the event of Covid doing the rounds of a dressing room.

It seems to be have been rather hit and miss until now. Some clubs have turned out a team despite their squad being badly hit.

For others, it seemed like having the tea lady off sick was enough for a game to be postponed.

The EFL say that having 14 players, including a keeper, available is sufficient to play a game in the current circumstances.

Those players could come from the senior pool and from the Under-21s if necessary – as long as those from the 21s have a previous league game under their belt.

Any request for a postponement will be treated on an individual basis but the 14 players is a good rule of thumb.

Millwall being called off means we will have to wait longer for Ryan Lowe’s second game in charge of North End.

His first went to plan last Saturday as his new charges beat Barnsley 2-1.

There were promising signs in patches of what PNE could be all about under Lowe’s tutelage.

They were a lot more attack-minded, Alan Browne and Daniel Johnson being given a licence to push high from midfield making a big difference in my eyes.

The way PNE attempted to play out from the back was noticeable. Daniel Iversen was encouraged to play short to his central defenders.

Sometimes the ball needed to come back to the keeper but the intent was still to pass their way out.

The new style wasn’t without its teething troubles which could be excused considering Lowe only had three training sessions to get his message across prior to facing Barnsley.

It would have been very interesting to see how the Lilywhites would have tackled Millwall on their patch but that will have to wait to another day.

Would they have attacked to the same extent? Would Lowe have picked the same side with Ali McCann in action at right wing-back?

If the postponement has done anything, it has given Lowe more time at Euxton with the squad. He will have more sessions to get the squad used to the patterns of play he wants, get them taking up the positions which make his system tick.

You could almost look at it like a mini pre-season, some valuable time on the training pitch without having to focus on a specific game.

Most of the squad Lowe has now seen in action, either against Barnsley or in Tuesday afternoon’s reserve game against Accrington.

It can sometimes be difficult to read too much into a reserve outing but Lowe had clearly asked his side to play a certain way.

Never had Jordan Storey or Liam Lindsay made runs deep into the opposition half down the sides of the pitch, as they did against Accy.

That might not be something they are used to but Lowe wants that thrust from the back.

Deepdale got a lift from Lowe last week, the crowd numbers up from the previous home game and the atmosphere better.

Not since Simon Grayson took the helm in February 2013 had North End changed boss mid-season with fans in the stadium.

Alex Neil arrived during summer 2017 and left this March when the turnstiles were padlocked.

So Frankie McAvoy didn’t get a fanfare when he took over, his interim spell done against a background of empty seats.

It was great to hear the loud applause which accompanied Lowe on his walk from the tunnel to the technical walk.

His formal introduction as he stood ready for kick-off got loud applause – the ovation as he clapped the fans after the final whistle was loud too. Let’s hope we hear that again soon.

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