Preston North End winger Anthony Gordon is adapting to Championship life after his loan move from Everton

Anthony Gordon has been enjoying his first taste of Championship football with Preston North End as he makes the adjustment from being a fringe player in the Premier League at Everton.
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His loan move to PNE from the Toffees done late on transfer deadline day was designed to give him a regular run of first-team football.

Gordon now has two starts and two games off the bench in a Preston shirt, and if his display in Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw with Queens Park Rangers is anything to go by, we will be seeing plenty more of him.

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On the day he turned 20, the winger was very good against QPR, with just a goal missing from his repertoire.

He had the chances to score while also setting up opportunities for team-mates in a game North End should have won.

Gordon said: “I’m really enjoying it here, it’s a lot different than the Premier League.

“Every team you come up against is a lot different and that is a big test.

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“Premier League teams have little differences to one another but they are all looking to play nice football.

Preston North End winger Anthony GordonPreston North End winger Anthony Gordon
Preston North End winger Anthony Gordon

“In the Championship it is different types of players, different styles from one week to the next.

“It seems that a couple of bad results drop you right down and a couple of wins have you flying.

“We should have beaten QPR, I had chances and created a few others.

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“It was one of those games where if we had managed to take the lead, I think we could have ended up winning by three or four.”

Anthony Gordon wins PNE's first penalty at Cardiff last SaturdayAnthony Gordon wins PNE's first penalty at Cardiff last Saturday
Anthony Gordon wins PNE's first penalty at Cardiff last Saturday

Gordon had three decent sights of goal in the QPR clash.

He twice forced keeper Seny Dieng into saves, the first with a free-kick and then having tricked his way into the box and got a low shot away.

His third chance was the best, sending a header over the bar from Sepp van den Berg’s cross.

By Gordon’s own admission, he needs to polish up his heading skills.

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“I’m harsh on myself but I know I have do better when chances come my way,” said Gordon.

“When it comes to my heading, I’m not going to lie about it not being the best feature of my game.

“I think I would have scored the header just before half-time had I been expecting it more.

“It was a great ball in from Sepp and their defender just missed it.

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“That caught me off guard a little bit and I put the header over the bar.”

There is another quick turnaround for North End in their schedule, with them back in action at Deepdale on Saturday against Huddersfield.

The point gained from the QPR game at least put them on the right track after successive defeats to Watford and Cardiff, the Cardiff drubbing one to quickly scrub from the memory.

Alex Neil’s men need to follow it up with a victory though, as they look for a bit of form to banish any threat of being dragged into a fight towards the lower rungs of the table.

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If Gordon can conjure up something similar to Wednesday evening and just add a bit of poise to his play in the box, that would hugely benefit North End against the Terriers.

Gordon has not arrived at Deepdale as completely raw talent.

He has 20 appearances in Everton’s first team on his CV, 14 of those in the Premier League.

Most of those came last season, his full debut in the top flight being against Liverpool in June.

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The latest chapter of the Merseyside derby was played last Saturday while Gordon was travelling home with the PNE squad from Cardiff.

An Evertonian as long as he can remember, he was delighted to see his parent club win 2-0.

Said Gordon: “I got off the plane from Cardiff, we had played badly and I was just hoping Everton had done well at Anfield.

“It was brilliant to find out Everton had won, the lads did themselves proud.”

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Gordon had not even been born the last time the Toffees had beaten the Reds at Anfield.

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