Preston fan John Roper says Preston's home form over the past year is a major worry

In spite of a moment of magic from Jayden Stockley, North End slumped to their fifth consecutive home defeat of the season, losing 2-1 to Birmingham City.
Andrew Hughes tackles Birmingham City's Josh Dacres-CogleyAndrew Hughes tackles Birmingham City's Josh Dacres-Cogley
Andrew Hughes tackles Birmingham City's Josh Dacres-Cogley

Injury was added to insult with North End losing Darnell Fisher through injury and finishing the game with at least three players walking wounded.

Behind to a very early goal North End eventually got going and a fabulous strike by Stockley saw us back into the game.

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At the interval, for some strange reason, I actually fancied North End to go on and win the game as Birmingham had slowed down a little towards the end of the first period.

Unfortunately the up and at em performance that all North End fans were looking for never really appeared. A couple of good saves from the Brummie keeper were enough to give the visitors the chance to win the game when Gardner scored in the final 10 minutes.

Boss Alex Neil looked a very forlorn figure at the end and one wonders just where Neil and North End go from here. The manager decided it was time to shake up the pack and made five changes to the side that lost so poorly to Millwall on Wednesday evening.

Joe Rafferty, Scott Sinclair, Brad Potts, Ryan Ledson and Emil Riis made way for Fisher, Paul Gallagher, Josh Harrop, Tom Barkhuizen and Stockley as North End lined up their usual 4-2-3-1.

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It didn’t take long for North End to be behind again as the Blues took the lead through McGree in under two minutes after some very sloppy defensive work, firstly by Storey and then compounded by Bauer and Rudd. North End looked shaky in those early stages and it didn’t look good as the visitors pressed us hard.

However after 24 minutes of this game and 384 minutes of the home campaign, North End finally broke their duck and what a goal it was. The ball fell to Jayden Stockley a full 30 yards from goal and the big striker launched a goal of the season contender.

North End seemed visibly lifted and although we came under a bit of pressure for a few moments we finished the half in the ascendancy.

There was certainly optimism at the start of the second half and hopes that North End could finally get the home monkey well and truly off their backs.

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We started well enough but we were once again lightweight in the middle of the park at the 50/50 balls and to be honest Birmingham enjoyed more possession after the break than they should have done.

Barkhuizen looked North End’s biggest threat and he had a good chance saved early on in the second half and then had a curling shot superbly saved towards the end. Ledson, Rafferty and Riis were introduced at various points but with North End carrying a limping Andrew Hughes we started to struggle.

The winning goal came from sub Gardner in the final 10 minutes, who sneaked in between two sleeping centre backs and although the referee added five minutes additional time on, we just couldn’t find a way back into the game and home defeat number five was complete.

In some respects this was a better performance than Wednesday evening but to be honest I thought Millwall were a much better side than Birmingham and that in itself makes this particular defeat all the more hard to take.

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Goodness knows what the fans’ reaction would be if they were allowed in to Deepdale after five straight home defeats as it is bad enough having to watch it on the PC. Irrespective of what the official line might be, I think the manager is under severe pressure.

It isn’t just these five defeats, it is the form generally at home through this calendar year.

The number of fans clamouring for a change grows by the game and if we had not got some excellent results away I think they may have got their wish. The manager needs to sort this home form out because if we carry on like this we are in danger of being relegated at the end of this season.