Graham Alexander's simple response to Preston North End Championship survival question

Graham Alexander is unwavering in his belief that Preston North End can survive relegation from the Championship, despite the club suffering one of the worst starts in Championship history.

Preston fell to their 10th defeat in 13 Championship games on Saturday when they were defeated 2-0 by Stoke City, meaning they have suffered one of the worst starts since the league rebranded to the Championship in 2004.

Only four teams have ever had fewer points in the league at this point, but three of those were due to points deductions suffered by Sheffield Wednesday in 2025-26, Derby County in 2021-22 and Wigan Athletic in 2019-20. All of them had actually registering better results than North End on the pitch.

That leaves just the start of Sheffield Wednesday’s 2023-24 campaign, in which they drew three, lost 10 and won none of their first 13 games, as a worse start than Preston based on points won.

The Owls won their 14th game, taking their points tally to six. If Preston lose to Sheffield United on Tuesday night at Deepdale, then their start will become even worse.

Remarkably, despite the terrible start, Wednesday pulled off the great escape, securing Championship safety on the final day with a 2-0 win at Sunderland. So there is a precedent of teams surviving from even worse predicaments than Preston find themselves in. Alexander has no doubt his team can do so.

When asked by The Post following the defeat to Stoke if he still believed Preston could get out of trouble, he simply replied: “100 per cent.”

Graham Alexander on responding to set backs

If Alexander's belief is to become a reality, then results will need to start becoming positive. Quickly.

There did appear to be a glimmer of hope after a promising performance in the draw against West Brom, in which the team gave a lung-bursting performance and things appeared as if they were starting to click.

However, little of that progress was on display at the Bet365 Stadium and Alexander said when asked if the performance felt like a step back: "That's life, isn't it?

"Two steps forward, one step back. All that sort of thing. We have to make sure we make more forward steps than back over the course of the season for us to be successful.

"Life is full of knock backs and hits. We're not unique, it's not personal to us, it happens to everybody and every football team especially.

"It's how you respond to them that defines what you're going to be."

Preston have struggled away from home under Alexander

What was particularly galvanising about the draw with West Brom was the roaring support the team got for their efforts during the 90 minutes and the rousing reception afterwards in what was a boisterous Deepdale atmosphere. Alexander felt the fans matched the 'defiance' shown by his team.

The other home game against Millwall also had bright spots, but Preston have not looked like winning of their three away matches under Alexander, in which they’ve conceded 10 goals.

When asked if missing that home support possibly depleted his team's emotional energy at Stoke, he said: "Yeah, I could see that point of view.

“I think it's natural, but that might be going into the phenomenon that all football teams feels like that when you get that backing at home compared to away from home.

"But this is the competitive nature of football. You have to go to hostile environments and places and you have to commit to the game.

"Even if you get booed or jeered or whatever it is, it's just got to wash off your back, whatever it is. Simple as. This thing about being liked all the time or getting a pat on the back, you're setting yourself up for a fall because that's not how the game works.

"We have to understand what the basics are of our game, we have to put them into practise, but we have to understand we're not going to be perfect. As long as we're comfortable with that imperfection, we won't overdramatise mistakes and so forth."

With two games at Deepdale this week against Sheffield United and Southampton, Preston have to make the home advantage count.