'Some concerns' - EFL pundit weighs in on Preston North End's slide after Millwall loss
PNE have won one of their last nine Championship games
Preston North End are still having a steady season but recent results and performances come as a concern.
That is the view of ‘Not The Top 20’ co-host, George Elek - one half of the renowned EFL podcast, along with Ali Maxwell. The Lilywhites have spent most of the campaign in and around the play-offs, but dropped to 12th after their 0-2 loss to Millwall last weekend.
Paul Heckingbottom’s side are now eight points adrift of sixth placed Wrexham, having won one of their last nine fixtures. Their next match comes on Friday night, at home to relegation fighting Oxford United.
The North End boss had zero complaints with the outcome last Saturday, as Alex Neil’s side ran out winners in Lancashire. For Elek, Preston’s positive first half of the campaign mustn’t be forgotten.
“Dominant from Millwall,” said Elek. “Really, really good. Millwall were by far the better team, here. Some concern about Preston at the moment. It doesn’t matter because they are not going to get relegated.
“I guess if they lose every game from now until the end of the season, it’s a possibility, but they sit on 49 points and are in 12th, so they’re fine. But, what looked like it should be a really exciting play-off tilt, has fallen apart pretty quickly.
“In fairness to Hecky, he shouldn’t be judged on what was an amazing start to the season. For them to be 12th, taking out all recency bias and recent performances, is still a very good effort.
“To take this Preston side and, effectively, be safe as early as they were this season... but, their current performances are not particularly good. The betting odds probably have them as the third or fourth worst team in the league at the moment.
“There was very little in this performance from Preston to suggest otherwise. They came up against a Millwall side who are third in the league on merit, are a very good team and fresh off beating Birmingham comfortably, three-nil last time.
“I am impressed by how quickly Millwall have got over that 1-3 defeat against Portsmouth. Yeah, Millwall putting themselves in a good position. Preston, maybe I am just a hopeful Oxford fan, but a team I have some concerns about right now.”