Anger, worry, apathy - all warranted - but Preston North End's players just cannot be given up on now
PNE will play for Championship survival on the last day of the season at Bristol City
A long week? You bet. Saturday, regardless of the dread and worry around it, is a day that cannot come quickly enough. The wait will be agonising. How Preston North End would take a dead-rubber trip to Ashton Gate now; the reality is quite the opposite. It’s been a while since relegation fears were genuine around here but this is not the usual way it goes. Relegation tends to loom and hover before being suffered. You feel it and fight it for several months; this has been a late, lung-busting surge towards the trapdoor.
And if we are honest, despite being calculated as having a one per cent chance prior to Saturday’s defeat to Plymouth Argyle, this would no longer be a surprise. Preston are ticking every box: last-minute goals conceded, a dire run of results, costly refereeing decisions, midfield injury crisis, a lack of favours from elsewhere. There was a strange feeling in the air at Hull and an even worse one at Deepdale last weekend. PNE’s home felt utterly empty - all the hallmarks of a dress rehearsal to death.
Paul Heckingbottom and his men must now face all of that head on, and simply do whatever it takes over the next 90 minutes to survive. It’s a huge week at Euxton, to be prepared physically, mentally and tactically for the Robins. Externally, catastrophe will be visualised; this match will linger in the minds of supporters every single day until the event. It’s an uncertain, scary place to be. Fears around standing still and going backwards - spoken and written about regularly over the last few years - have now been completely justified.
But, if there is ever a week to put that on pause, then it might just be this one. Because if this does end badly, then the storm will come like you wouldn’t believe - and dominate the entire summer. Even if North End stay up, it’s the biggest wake up call you could ever have and big changes must finally happen. Right now, though, while there is still one more game to be played those players - whom many will probably be fed up with and frustrated by - have to be backed once more. They cannot be given up on, not now - they are the only ones who can do something about it.
This is where belief, courage and unity is required in abundance. And Preston’s players will need to show things they haven’t, anywhere near enough, in recent months. Professional footballers who should never be in this situation - yes - but also human beings, who will be feeling the weight of Saturday’s potential. Which, make no mistake about it, is complete disaster. The Deepdale faithful will feel they have done their bit more than enough and not got anything back. But when it’s the hardest to feel optimistic and positive, and hope is almost gone, that is when they are needed like never before.