Paul Heckingbottom assesses Bradford City friendly and what is next for Preston North End players
Positives and negatives for the PNE boss to reflect on.
Paul Heckingbottom is pleased that some of his Preston North End players got 90 minutes in their legs during their latest friendly this week.
PNE lost 3-2 to Bradford City on Wednesday night. The League One outfit went a goal up on 10 minutes through Will Swan. Milutin Osmajic equalised early in the second half with a powerful hit from close quarters, before Jordan Storey turned the game around from a corner.
Tyreik Wright made it all-square for Bradford, before the Bantams re-took and secured the lead through substitute Nick Powell.
Lee Nicholls, Pol Valentin, Jordan Storey, Ali McCann, Andrew Moran and Milutin Osmajic all played the full 90.
While he saw some positives, Heckingbottom knows there is room for improvement. After the game, he told the club’s website: “[Some] players got their first 90s, you can see one or two still looking rusty.
“In terms of what we want to see, between both boxes in the first half we were good and looked slick at times, but that’s not what wins games and we gave them four good opportunities from our mistakes.
“That will always be the same: how you perform in both boxes will determine results. Second half, we weren’t as pretty in the first 30 minutes but we were much more effective and kept them out of our box, we were on top.
“[Bradford] will be pleased with their goals, I’m sure, but from our point of view, we are nowhere near ruthless enough, slick enough and organised enough at the minute. We gave too many loose chances away which isn’t us, but that shows one or two players need more minutes.”
Subscribe now for HALF PRICE and catch every minute of our PNE coverage this season - from pre-season to the final whistle. Click here
Heckingbottom was clear on his plans for the remainder of pre-season. “Hard work,” he told the club website, “we’ve done a lot of the physical stuff, so now it’s just the minutes and the games. The ones who have had 90 [minutes] will benefit, we’ll give some 90 on Saturday [vs Stockport] and some more 90 on Monday [vs Barcelona].
“Obviously, the Huddersfield game will be a big one for us, yeah we can make subs, but we can only make five, so it’s the last game before we start the season for real, in the league the week after so we’ve got three really good games there.”