Preston North End’s ‘bad boy’ Darnell Fisher takes his share of punishment too!

The PNE right-back had 11 bookings to his name during the 2019/20 season, two more than Ben Pearson.

But when it came to being fouled, Fisher was certainly on the end of it from the opposition.

In his 28 league appearances in the season just ended, Fisher was fouled an average of 2.4 times a game.

The 26-year-old does know how to draw a foul in the right circumstances, so it is not too much of a surprise to see such a statistic.

Sean Maguire was second in the list behind Fisher, with the striker fouled an average of 2.1 times a game.

Bearing in mind the Irish frontman featured in 44 of the 46 Championship games, he certainly won his fair share of free-kicks.

Pearson was fouled on average 1.4 times a game in his holding midfield role.

On the flip side of the coin, Fisher committed 1.7 fouls a game and Pearson 1.1.

In his run of games in the winter, Paul Huntington made 1.2 fouls per match. Ryan Ledson had the same statistics as Huntington, with Andrew Hughes and Josh Harrop both committing 1.1 fouls a game on average.

With regards to Fisher, he did not have a great deal of involvement after the restart.

He started the games against Cardiff and Brentford, with him coming off the bench at Luton.

In the build-up to the restart, Fisher was hindered by a groin injury which restricted his training.

Alan Browne started the Luton games ahead of him, before Fisher was brought back to face Cardiff.

Then Joe Rafferty got the nod to start the Derby game.

Rafferty pretty much made the right-back or the right wing-back slot his own from then on.

Against Brentford, Fisher came back in with Rafferty moving over the left in a 3-5-2 formation.

Rafferty generally having performed well will be fresh in Alex Neil’s mind when the squad return for pre-season training on August 13.

Fisher is one of the players in the last year of their contracts and is likely to be someone they want to keep.

In terms of holding down a regular place, he has genuine competition from Rafferty. It must be noted that Browne played well there too, that something for Neil to consider.