Cardiff here we come!!!


Excellent result last night and fair play to KB he got the tactics spot on by spoiling Preston‘s game in the first half then stepping it up in the second.


The team selection surprised me a bit but playing with just one recognized striker was the right thing to do as the name of the game in the first half was definitely to frustrate the opposition, the decision to go with no substitute keeper was more of a worry, especially when Sully went down a couple of times.


Leeds did some great work in defence especially in the second half after we went down to 10 men but there were times when Kelly and Gregan together on the right side of defence looked very dodgy, Killa was immense all night.


The game itself was only 10 minutes old when Ormerod had to be carried off after a challenge by Douglas. That was the first bit of luck and it definitely threw Preston.


Fraser Richardson had the best effort by either side in the first half, bringing a good save out of 'lucky to stay on pitch', Nash. Preston were showing very little and Nugent was his usual useless, whinging self.


HT 0-0 and so far so good.


Preston replaced Stewart after an extended half time due to a power cut, as the over confident Preston manager's decision to start with 4 strikers clearly was not working, the tosser was definitely guilty of underestimating the Whites. Agyemang who came on for him was shite, in-fact their only real threat was Dichio due to his power and size.


We started the second half in a different gear and pressed them lot from the start, it was no shock when Rob Hulse headed us in front from a corner, their fans could not believe it.
Five minutes later and it was 0-2 to the Whites when this time Hulse shook off a defender or two to pass the ball across goal to Richardson who slotted home

Half an hour to go and we would now have to do something really stupid to lose this one, though we are capable of that.


For the next 10 minutes we were looking comfortable until Crainey, who was having another decent game brought the whinging Nugent down and having already been booked he was off, 20 minutes to hold out but we need not have worried. In fact I forgot we were down to 10.


Cresswell replaced Hulse with 10 to go and almost immediately got booked but we were still looking comfortable at the back.
They had one goal diallowed but that was clearly the right decision as the ball went out of play and came back in from a corner, prior to the goal.


By the time the 90 minutes were up, and with the only Leeds players not booked being the keeper and the 2 wide men, Preston had run out of ideas. But there was still time for one more booking for Cresswell, his second in 12 minutes and he was off for kicking the ball away, if I was him I would tell them I mis-controlled it, that’s what it looked like to me.


Fantastic night and we are in the final, probably against Watford.


FT: 0-2 Leeds

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.

If this was a full dress rehearsal for the play offs I would be very worried at the moment, we were poor to say the least. however, I'm not overly concerned because I feel that surely KB deliberately played a poor tactical game to fool the opposition into thinking that because they won almost every 50/50 ball and had 5 times as many efforts at goal and were never troubled in the slightest by any of our set pieces, they have the beating of us.

Having taken the opportunity to rest several key players and with Preston having not, I was looking forward to some of our fringe players kicking the shit out of some of their better ones, unfortunately that did not happen as none of our players got close enough to them to do any damage.


It was no surprise when Preston took the lead after 40 minutes when Stock curled in an excellent free kick around the Leeds wall and passed a stationary Neil Sullivan. I don’t recall us having an effort on target in the first half.


HT 1-0


The second half was a bit more open with both sides having some half chances but the game was put beyond the Whites when one time loanee Brett Ormerod tapped home after the ball had been bobbling around our goal line for some time.


FT 2-0


Advantage Preston?


As I mentioned before KB must have something up his sleeve, if not he should not be managing LUFC.

Comments made after the game such being pleased to have avoided going to Palace (scene of our best performance this season) as we often have trouble there and that he came out of the game knowing more about Preston than they know about us seem ridiculous when you consider that both teams have just had 45 plus games to size each other up.
I doubt there is anything more either manager can learn about the opposition.

On the injury front, lets hope Lewis and Bakke can recover in time from their injuries. Both could be vital on Friday when the Upper East stand will be opened for the first time this season.


We, the crowd, could be the main difference on Friday.