Made In Preston – the blog

PNE 0 Bristol City 4. Sounds bad yet PNE were fighting back after losing an early goal until McLaughlin had a serious injury just before half time; all the best to him.  Several new players in the squad.  Sometimes new managers see a downturn before the up so is this the worst result before something gells or is it just the way it’s going to be. 

Still feel more confidence in Phil Brown and Brian Horton than any of the last managers, but also had confidence in Neil Mellor, things aren’t looking good for this season but it’s not over yet. 10 points adrift with 2 games in hand and 18 games to go, need to get about 32 more points, not impossible, just improbable.

Noted that Alan Irvine was replaced by Gary Megson at Sheffield Wednesday last week.

Some optimism now. We all know Phil from his extravert antics at Hull, providing a lot of entertainment; singing to the crowd, keeping the players on the pitch at half-time. He did a good job there, although they seemed to have some money.  Football is about entertainment so bring it on. 

Not long ago there was Billy Davies who surprised us all but wanted money and left, then Paul Simpson who seemed OK at first but was perhaps coasting on Billy Davies’s team till it fell apart,  Alan Irvine who was a nice guy and did well at first but then hit a very lean spell, Darren Ferguson who had two good seasons at Peterborough but his team had struggled in the Championship.   Yesterday someone quoted that Bill Shankly said a football team is 3 great players supported by the rest, or something like that. So have PNE got 3 great players: Lonergan, St Ledger and ……..   Shame about Alexander, McKenna, Wallace leaving, who sold them?

Now with 19 points from 24 games and needing 8 points to get 1 point out of the relegation zone it is a mountain to climb.  Phil has a practise game against Notts Forest in the cup then a week later it’s Leicester at Deepdale.  If PNE can score some goals it isn’t beyond hope they can get 9 points from the next 4 games and they’d then be in the middle of the scrap and able to claw their way out. Scoring has seemed difficult lately.

If David Unsworth becomes a successful manager he has the opportunity to perhaps look back to this week as his finest hour.  Imagine that 2 days before a match you’re appointed caretaker manager and later in the day 2 of your best players have their loan agreement ended.  Then 1 day before the match you’re told two more of your players have had their loan ended and the centre forward is being sold, while another key player is being told he shouldn’t be there as Manchester United are challenging his loan contract.

Today it was announced that Stoke City have followed Manchester United by taking back their two loan players.  Stoke advise they need the players to cover through a difficult fixture period.  Some people are speculating that the relationship between Manchester United and Stoke managers is close and there is a good chance it has associations with the sacking of Darren Ferguson.  This is surely not true?

If such a network does exist perhaps it would be best to be well out of it as PNE seem to have had more loan players in the last 12 months than ever known and it seemed the team wasn’t really ever going to settle or seem to be the genuine item.  To give the impression that PNE are hooked so dependantly onto Manchester United is a loss of dignity, despite the glow.  From using their training ground to loaning players and who knows what else.  The more information that is popping out about this period the less concerning the dismissal becomes.  It can’t be good for Darren either.

Following the ending of Darren Ferguson’s term at PNE his father Sir Alex Ferguson has immediately recalled two loan players and a third who is on a longer contract is wanted back.  Two of the players appear to have made a mark.  With PNE having no money to buy decent players it isn’t clear what effect this will have as North End also have several other loan players who seemed to be here, gone, then back.  The best players like St Ledger seem not to be giving their best and some players who had previously seemed good to have lost form and been loaned elsewhere.  Whether this can be made right and some stability returned must be an objective.

David Unsworth has been put in charge for the next 2 games.  Phil Brown is the bookies favourite although PNE might be hoping that David Unsworth gets some results and can be offered a cheaper, shorter contract.  David Unsworth would seem the best outcome for this season and long term if he can get some early results and this is a great opportunity for him.  A concern about Phil Brown might be that with Hull he had the support of a wealthy backer who completely transformed the club, although often money achieves less than expected and it was a meteoric rise similar to Darren Ferguson at Peterborough but they didn’t have the money to take it further.

How many clubs have stayed with a manager when they have been at the bottom with things seeming to be getting worse in November, yet………

Yesterday PNE dropped to bottom following the home defeat to Hull and Crystal Palace winning at home. The position doesn’t look good as a clear gap is appearing but the chairman gave Darren Ferguson a vote of confidence saying he’d been hit by injuries.   It would be normal to expect the manager to be ousted in such a situation but PNE have paid off the two previous managers and are in business only because they have been bailed out by Trevor Hemmings. The wage bill is still said to be excessive and there are players on the books who should be gone. Meanwhile gates are low and likely to get lower.  To add to the difficulty it is said that Trevor Hemmings is friendly with Alec Ferguson.  Trevor Hemmings isn’t known for buying lemons and as he owns the club it doesn’t seem likely he would want to run it down or put it into administration. 

On the positive side the squad isn’t as bad as it has appeared. Some of the goals conceded have been what you might say are blatant one-off errors typical of a team that are down on their confidence. Whether Darren Ferguson can turn it round isn’t clear, whether he needs someone to give him management support might be a route the club and him might be willing to take. Although how this would work and for how long will tax everyones diplomatic,  communication and business skills in setting it up.

There is another route to let the team fight their way up or be relegated and then hope that Darren can pull something out of the fire and maybe gain more experience in League 1. This seems a risky strategy as its easier to go down than come up and what Darren did at Peterborough might not be repeated.

Looking at the table and fixtures, the game against QPR next week might be written off but PNE have surprised in such circumstances. The game in two weeks at home against Millwall might be more of a trial as losing that after a defeat at QPR would be a ‘6 pointer’ and things would be reaching a point of no return.  With all these ponderables the obvious route of changing manager might not be the best route overall so it seems that whatever path is chosen will be clear in the next couple of weeks.

On October 29th Ronnie Clayton, the famous Blackburn Rovers midfielder of the 1950’s and 60’s, died aged 76. Making his first team debut at the age of 17, playing for England at 20 and captaining England at 25 and yet continuing to work in the local newsagency he owned in Darwen.  Somehow after going to school in Preston, Fishwick, he was spotted by Blackburn and went there. In Blackburn he is revered and regarded as a gentleman with a common touch much as Tom Finney is in Preston.