Wolves’ Premier quality shone through in disappointing Deepdale opener
Two defeats now in the opening two games of the season ensured North End’s poor form continues.
And what a pity, in the August sunshine on the brand new Deepdale pitch of a standard found in the topflight.
Perhaps fittingly then, the turf’s ‘debut’ saw the arrival of newly-relegated Wolves, their side still stuffed with Premier League talent.
Suffice to say, the difference did show over the 90 minutes here, with the only crumb of comfort being a consolation goal by Jordon Thompson in stoppage time at the end of the game.
Given all that, it really doesn’t help when you effectively gift your opposition the opening goal within less than 10 minutes from kick off. First an error by centre back Liam Lindsay, high up the pitch, allowed £19 Million Fer López a free run down the right.
It was compounded by fellow centre back Jordan Storey being far too hesitant to come out and meet him until it was too late to stop an excellent strike past Daniel Iversen.
However, PNE did pull themselves together for the rest of the first half, with debutant Harry Clarke impressing at right back, giving a calm and reassuring display, and with the other new player, Léo Leroy, showing creative touches and passes from midfield to follow on from his substitute appearance last week at Bolton.
It meant that this fan went onto the concourse for his halftime chat with his fellow supporters still hopeful of getting something from the game. After all, following the debacle of the goal we had matched the visitors and were looking more positive by the end of the half.
But there we go again with that word ‘hope’. It proved to be a false dawn that was not helped by the current lack of bodies in the squad as the second half progressed.
With Milutin Osmajić about to be sold and therefore not in the squad, it looked ominous as our only other first team striker, Jusef Erabi, hobbled off a few minutes past the hour mark. It was shortly after this that our fellow League founders started to really show their class, bringing on Adam Armstrong up top … a proven and lethal goal scorer at Championship level.
Sure enough, within a few minutes he clipped in a superb goal following a one-two with Raúl Jiménez. Yes, the same Jiménez that plays for Mexico and was but a few weeks ago in the crucible of the Azteca against England in the World Cup!
From then on it became increasingly comfortable for the visitors and hence came as no surprise to see López get his brace for their third goal.
Given the situation, it was nice to see Paul Heckingbottom give a late run out for 17 year old academy player George Gryba replacing Callum Lang up top.
The youngster is big for his age and so didn’t look out of place physically and perhaps he will get further opportunities this season as he seems to be on Heckingbottom’s radar.
Putting aside Wolves squad for a moment and the problems they caused, it is obvious to all that our squad is in desperate need of some more bodies of a decent quality similar to the likes of Clarke and Leroy and that they are needed fast if this poor start is not to become an early season crisis.