MATCHWATCH : Preston North End (h) sponsored by opening game optimism

[ankeny]

We hold on... just. Sounds like thanks to Preston's utter mediocrity rather than our own skill. Should really have won that comfortably and had it put to bed in the first half.

oh bore off

Seconded

[genome]

Promotion party countdown thread

[NewCorkSeth]

Well.. Lots of activity on this.. Must have been a popular match. My Dad and Brother managed to get to it but they barely updated me so I'm assuming little happened..

[Saaaaaaaammmmmm]

Highlights
http://www.skysports.com/efl/championsh ... -0-preston

[Royal Ginger]

Well.. Lots of activity on this.. Must have been a popular match. My Dad and Brother managed to get to it but they barely updated me so I'm assuming little happened..

Really entertaining game actually. Had a great day.

Remind me again why we don't play football in the summer? I much preferred today's experience to the ones where I fear losing toes to the cold.

[moo]

We hold on... just. Sounds like thanks to Preston's utter mediocrity rather than our own skill. Should really have won that comfortably and had it put to bed in the first half.

Surprise suprise. It's knob tit Royal posting this drivvle.

I'm BFTG and feel we played very positively under a completely new and exciting system.

[Gordons Cumming]

71% possession is impressive.

[NewCorkSeth]

Well.. Lots of activity on this.. Must have been a popular match. My Dad and Brother managed to get to it but they barely updated me so I'm assuming little happened..

Really entertaining game actually. Had a great day.

Remind me again why we don't play football in the summer? I much preferred today's experience to the ones where I fear losing toes to the cold.

Nobodies done a BFTG yet. Was Swift a good? Also VDB was at CB right? How did that work out? And I'm delighted to see Tennai Watson get a game! How was he?

[royalp-we]

BFTG and very excited for what's to come.

I can see Beerens, Mcleary & Harriott tearing up some full backs this season.

You can see clearly see the style of play and why Stam has brought in who he has. There were areas of the pitch covered which hadn't been covered with such good interplay for quite some time. FB's and Widemen did very well and swift got between the lines a few times, it was good to watch.

A great big oxf*rd you to the fans shouting 'forward' today and groaning - I guess we'll always have them in the crowd.

We almost got caught once or twice; but we created some good chances ourselves. We could; and should have won by more.

For those who felt they can't see how it would fit together I guess you did today - We looked a far more organised unit than Preston and broke far more effectively.

Early days but plenty of postivies to take from that. Most enjoyable day at the Mad Stad for some time.

[tmesis]

Yep, some really nice stuff played today, particularly in the first half. Preston barely got a touch.

Still work to do, mind you, as we weren't convincing in the box. Players seems to get in each other's way and fluff their lines far too much, but we seem to have a plan, and a bit of momentum again.

[Snowball]

VERY promising.

The first thing to say (IMO) is we played so intelligently. Preston tried to close us down in the first 15 minutes but they were clearly using too much energy. Hard to explain but this possession seemed miles better than the boring possession under Rodgers.

There were a few very good moves, the players looked like they'd played together for a good while so the future looks very promising. We missed a few half-decent chances first half but the finishing will come. One move second half opened Preston up but Rakels managed to hit the keeper. TBF to him he is not a number 9 and was up against two big centre backs all day.

At kickoff the two CBs were miles apart and the FBs pushing up. Almost all game McShane seemed to be very wide. Not sure what was going on there but I'd be worried about a really slick, fast attack. Early days of course.

First half Williams was on fire. He was still running down blind alleys but was managing to bounce the ball out. VG half but long term I would still prefer a midfielder who played more as a team player.

Gunter, Williams and McLeary worked extremely well together (making the remark above sound odd) and McLeary was beating his man often. Gunts was much MUCH less negative, and apart from a couple of misplaced passes in the first half was solid.

Obita played very well up to his injury and partnered well with Beerens. It was nice to see both wingers able to skin players with skill. Not sure who was the third person working with Obita-Beerens. It might have been Rakels or Swift, occasionally Williams but the left side LB-LW-Another worked as well as the right side.

Rakels was given a tough job as the lone striker. It's clearly not his ideal position but he plugged away. Did one step-over that deserved a bigger reward and missed a great chance second half but I think he could still be a solid striker, just not as a 9.

I was expecting van de Berg to be a disaster but thought he was EXCELLENT, a character, classy. If we buy a top CB he ought to play in front of the back four but I wouldn't want to drop any of today's midfield.

I thought George Evans was very, very efficient, solid throughout, hardly ever gave the ball away and made some excellent passes a la Norwood. Personally, I think he will become a better player than Norwood. He needs 40 games and we will be worried about keeping him

McShane was McShane. There were a couple of times I thought he was outpaced but he managed to keep the player out.

Swift looks like a very decent player. He took his goal well but it was sucker-defending. If I haven't mentioned him much it's partly because I struggled to recognise players.

El Habsi made one very good save when we over-indulged with the passing and gave the ball away for a Preston player (Johnson?) a free run at goal. He made one other VG intervention late on.

But frankly, we had 82% first-half possession, 80% overall and were utterly dominant. We "deserved" 2-0 (at least) at half-time, and over the whole game we probably deserved 3-0. Preston had a go for 10-15 minutes after HT, and the last 6-10 minutes (six minutes of extra time) but they never really looked like scoring. I was expecting their strike force to be better.

They (Preston) didn't look a great side but not relegation fodder, either. This was a good Reading win and I feel way more optimistic about the season now.

[Nameless]

We hold on... just. Sounds like thanks to Preston's utter mediocrity rather than our own skill. Should really have won that comfortably and had it put to bed in the first half.

The risks of using the amateur hour that is Radio Berks for your insight.....

Preston had a couple of late chances but failed to even turn their lumping of the ball forward into meaningful shots on goal.

It was a decent game, at times we looked very good and what I saw from Beerens, Swift, Harriott, Watson and Evans suggests we won't waste much time remembering the players who moved on in the summer.

It may still be a difficult season but Stam is putting a team and a style together. We still need a goal scorer , we still need defensive cover but we also need a bit of patience and a bit of faith.

I love the start of the season, the optimism is still there and we are closer to beating the 106 record than big boys Newcastle !

[Snowball]

BFTG and very excited for what's to come.

I can see Beerens, Mcleary & Harriott tearing up some full backs this season.

You can see clearly see the style of play and why Stam has brought in who he has. There were areas of the pitch covered which hadn't been covered with such good interplay for quite some time. FB's and Widemen did very well and swift got between the lines a few times, it was good to watch.

A great big oxf*rd you to the fans shouting 'forward' today and groaning - I guess we'll always have them in the crowd.

We almost got caught once or twice; but we created some good chances ourselves. We could; and should have won by more.

For those who felt they can't see how it would fit together I guess you did today - We looked a far more organised unit than Preston and broke far more effectively.

Early days but plenty of postivies to take from that. Most enjoyable day at the Mad Stad for some time.

Smack on.

Forgot the subs. Tennai Watson did fine and Callum Harriot looked like a very good winger. Loads of confidence.

[sandman]

A good win, plenty of good play. Better teams than Preston will punish our overplaying at the back and we will need more grit in the winter months but overall a promising display.

[Ian Royal]

Highlights
http://www.skysports.com/efl/championsh ... -0-preston

Looks like we went forward well, but were poor at finishing our chances, and gave Preston too many opportunities - who were even worse at finishing their chances. Which is pretty much how the game sounded too.

[Winnershroyal]

Pre match the ED tribute was very moving, definitely something in my eye at that moment.

I thought we had we had the game always under control and only a mistake would let them in, which inevitably nearly happened.

Other than that, very warm day, PNE fan who jumped the barrier and went into Y26 provided some light relief but that triggered a few other incidents.

As me and my boy were walking out three PNE pissed up fans were kicking in the door by the West stand.

Strange day.

[Ian Royal]

We hold on... just. Sounds like thanks to Preston's utter mediocrity rather than our own skill. Should really have won that comfortably and had it put to bed in the first half.

The risks of using the amateur hour that is Radio Berks for your insight.....

Preston had a couple of late chances but failed to even turn their lumping of the ball forward into meaningful shots on goal.

It was a decent game, at times we looked very good and what I saw from Beerens, Swift, Harriott, Watson and Evans suggests we won't waste much time remembering the players who moved on in the summer.

It may still be a difficult season but Stam is putting a team and a style together. We still need a goal scorer , we still need defensive cover but we also need a bit of patience and a bit of faith.

I love the start of the season, the optimism is still there and we are closer to beating the 106 record than big boys Newcastle !

Normally I do too, Reading have just beat that out of me though. Swift seems a hell of a player and there's loads of potential. I just refuse to get my hopes up after 3 seasons of toss. We still seem like struggling to take our chances and being prone to falling apart in defence. But it's very early days.

I'm more positive than I was at 2.55. I want to be convinced, not just hope.

[Nameless]

You just don't 'get' being a football fan do you Ian.......

You sound like you'd be much more comfortable following Barcelona or Real Madrid

[Scutterbucketz]

Shocking miss from Rakels. Part of me is starting to doubt he's going to be the leagues top scorer this year.

[Ian Royal]

You just don't 'get' being a football fan do you Ian.......

You sound like you'd be much more comfortable following Barcelona or Real Madrid

God no. I'll get over it. I'd have been positive as you'd like if the owner's hadn't sacked their third manager in two years, five months into his tenure only a couple of months ago.