Championship play off semi final 2nd leg 7.45pm Monday 8th May Deepdale


Even though I felt we were hard done by in the first Leg I still think we are in with an even chance of going through to the final in a couple of weeks.


We will of course have fewer supporters at the game than they had at ER but the 3,000 there will make enough noise.
I expect them to come at us early on and we should defiantly do the same back to them and get at them early.

I would prefer KB to go with a 4-4-2 for this game with depending on fitness, Hulse and Cresswell up front (if not Cress then Blake), Derry( if fit), Bakke, Stone and Lewis in Midfield and the same defense as in the first leg, I would also possibly play a 4-5-1 and bring Miller in for Cresswell leaving Hulse up front being supported by Miller, Stone and Lewis at every opportunity.


They are likely to go with the team that trotted out at ER meaning 4-3-3 and I honestly think we have the advantage over them in both attack and midfield but they are definitely a better defensive unit which means we have to try and get at them and provoke them into some rash challenges and get their central defenders booked early on, do that and we have an even better chance of winning.


I am starting to get nervous again but at least the Whites know what to expect at their place and a few refereeing decisions in our favour would not go amiss this time.
Overall I am confident we can do it but it is likely to take longer than 90 minutes.


Prediction: PNE 1 v Leeds United 1 after 90 minutes

Leeds to do them in extra time.


Come on you Whites!!!!!

Contrary to what the opposition manager obviously thinks we are still in with a good shout of getting to Cardiff.


KB should be using Billy Davies actions after the game as a spur to the boys before the second leg, Davies clearly thinks Preston are home and hosed.


The team was probably as expected with the exceptions of Healy playing instead of Blake and Miller starting instead of Stone who I thought would start, a surprise on the bench was Richard Cresswell.


The atmosphere was the best I remember it for a good few years with the crowd getting behind the boys from the first whistle and that definitely unsettled the opposition who were all over the place in the first 15 minutes, unfortunately the twat of a ref Mr Crossley completely bottled it when Killa was clearly pushed over in the box, no penalty and that was Preston’s way back into the game, a goal at that point and I am sure we would have gone on to beat them by a few.


After that the game opened up a bit more with both sides having chances the best of which was Killa hitting the post with an excellent header, again a goal at this point and with the crowd behind the team we would have gone on to win it.


HT: 0-0


Three minutes into the second half some rank bad defending notably by Kelly and Gregan let Nugent in to score the opening goal, absolute sickener as we definitely did not deserve to be behind.


We really got stuck into them after that but they had a good chance to go 2 up before we equalised. I felt we were just getting to the point where we had run out of ideas when they gave a free kick away just outside the box.


Luckily for us Healy was no longer on the pitch to take the kick and Lewis stepped up to place in the top right hand corner, we were back in it and for a while we looked like the team that could go on and win it.
The last 10 minutes were a bit of a non-event for the Whites as Preston had a lot of the ball and in the end I was quite happy when the final whistle went.


FT: 1-1


We definitely played better than we have done of late particularly Crainey who I am not a big fan of, if we can silence their meagre crowd early on in the second leg we can win the game in the 90.