John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Preston in cruise control and ready for lift-off
On Thursday afternoon, I began the first day of my new year by boarding the 3pm PNE Flight 2026 from Deepdale, before it jetted off to its unknown disembarkation point upon the conclusion of our season in May.
Recently – like a plane high up in the clouds navigating its way through a thunderstorm – our form has also encountered some turbulence.
In our six league matches since our win over Wednesday in the reverse fixture at the end of November we have won just once, with the defeat at Wrexham meaning that we had taken a slight nosedive just out of the play-off berths.
For various reasons, Captain Heckingbottom – the pilot of our plane – changed half a dozen of his cabin crew personnel for the for the first leg of this long-haul journey for what I considered to be a must-win match against a beleaguered Wednesday team who had gone 17 matches without a victory.
Although they had not suffered a complete system malfunction, the visitors were marooned at the bottom of the table on minus points.
With them having only won one league game all season I thought it was vitally important for us to win this game in order to continue cruising at a high altitude in the league table.
Also I feared that if we failed to do so that morale both on and off the pitch could suffer and we could soon find ourselves sliding down to mid-table – especially with us having a tough schedule for the rest of this month, particularly the games on our travels at Bristol City and Middlesbrough.
I had no need to worry as in the end our 3-0 victory was so comfortable I felt that I was on a smooth relaxing flight and I could switch off the stress button and unwind well before the end of the 90 minutes, knowing that the three precious points were safely in the bag.
In the cagey opening stages it felt like after fastening seatbelts our plane was just taxiing down the runway waiting for take-off, which came once man of the match Ali McCann coolly slotted home his first goal of the season .
From that moment onwards were in cruise control but couldn't capitalise on it and add to our tally before the interval.
On the hour mark we doubled our lead with the inevitable goal at his favourite end from the Town End Titan Milutin Osmajic.
The home crowd were delighted by his goal on his return from his lengthy ban and after this they constantly belted out the ‘Super Millie’ song to demonstrate how much they cared about him.
The third goal from Lewis Dobbin ensured a quirky record that the only times we have scored three goals in a game this season have been against Sheffield sides.
However this one – with a clean sheet and the biggest winning margin – got us back in the play-off spots and ensured that our long-standing dream of landing in the Premier League remains alive.