Preston North End vs Queens Park Rangers verdict - Let's not sound the alarms just yet, it's just PNE being PNE

We have had two very Preston North End weeks since the return of the Championship and whilst that is not a particularly technical term it is one that would certainly be understood amongst the ranks of the North End faithful.

Last week’s result against Blackburn Rovers was one that will live long in the memory. 4-1 away from home, dominant throughout. Regardless of circumstance that is always going to be a good day out.

If you factor in that PNE had seven regular first team players missing, it’s even better, and it’s a very PNE performance to put in when no one expects a result.

Fast forward seven days and those players, despite things looking promising going into the game, were all still unavailable. But no drama, an unchanged squad provides consistency, allows players to build up some form and simply pick up where they left off from their excellent performance last week, right?

Well, no. And that’s PNE for you. Despite having the exact same 18 for the game against QPR, North End could not have been further from the display, losing 1-0 to a Jimmy Dunne knee from a corner.

Last week they were in Rovers’ face, they were on the front foot, they were quick to jump in when they could and were crisp in possession.

Against QPR they were sloppy on the ball and for the most part in the first half, chasing shadows. It was bordering on incredible how the visitors were able to just carry the ball so freely towards, and in, North End’s final third.

They had players who were technically good and enjoyed having the ball at their feet, but that is nothing new to North End, there are players like that every week.

Preston looked scared to step in and make a tackle, or to get their body alongside to force them off the ball. The whole team was looking lightweight up against a QPR side that you would traditionally called lightweight. There was no enforcer in their midfield like Ryan Ledson or Ben Whiteman.

Instead Rangers were playing their own game away from home, PNE were camped in their own half, clinging on and lucky to have nil at the break.

And whilst PNE were poor on the day, QPR were smart. Ched Evans in recent weeks has been one of the form players in the league but Neil Critchley put a plan together to stop his influence and it worked.

Evans likes to step off just five or so yards from the backline in order to give himself time to control the ball and lay it off, but when he did that he would be swarmed.

He plays few passes first time so they knew that they would be able to harry him and when Evans is feeding off scraps, there goes PNE’s main goal threat. It also meant Ben Woodburn and Daniel Johnson alongside him were left scavenging and neither had good games.

It is worth noting too that QPR are not at all a bad side. Of course they have been in poor form and have had a change of manager, but that was not due to the form. They leapfrogged North End in the table with the win, by virtue of goals scored, and were not far off the top two earlier this campaign.

The Lilywhites were in good form, and probably still are on the whole, but they were not going to go the whole season without ever losing again and unsurprisingly when you lose you generally don’t play well, such was the case on Saturday.

The issue with North End not playing well is things all look a bit too blunt. There seemed to be little creativity on offer at Deepdale and when Bambo Diaby is an emergency sub at right back and his chop inside his marker on the halfway line is the most entertaining part of your game, you’ve not done a great deal.

North End are also without seven first team players, six to short term injuries that have all just piled up at the same time. It is not a disaster and, for the record, nor should Ryan Lowe go into great detail about them. He’s entitled to say as much as he wants on the matter and the more information he gives, the more the opposition knows so he’s very reasonable in keeping things close to his chest.

Would it have been a different result with the likes of Emil Riis, Sean Maguire, Troy Parrott, Robbie Brady and Alan Browne available? Possibly, but that’s football.

North End are still just outside the play-off places, there defeat saw them drop just one place. It could be a lot worse. There is still January to come and the hope that they can strengthen too.

The Championship is an insane league, PNE were bound to lose again but it’s not a defeat worth sounding the alarms over. It might serve to wake up a couple of players who may have thought every week would be as easy as Rovers, it might also just be a blip.

Level on points with the play-offs at Christmas. It’s not bad.

QPR had the first chance of the game after 11 minutes, Ethan Laird skipped by a handful of North End players to get into the area, the ball ricocheted up to Tim Iroegbunam who let fly but his effort was over the bar.

A rare foray forward for North End saw Johnson felled on the edge of the box, Whiteman's free kick on 22 minutes going into the wall.

After 56 minutes Preston registered their first shot on target, Alvaro Fernandez cutting inside from the left to shoot low on his right foot, a comfortable save for Seny Dieng.

But QPR quickly took the lead, a corner whipped in from the right was flicked on at the near post by Ledson onto Dunne whose diversion came off the underside of the crossbar before bouncing over the line.

PNE's best chance of the game fell the way of Woodburn. The Welshman received the ball inside the area one on one with the goalkeeper but Dieng was quickly out to smother the ball and just about prevent it sneaking under him after 64 minutes.