[themaclad]

Preston North End v Swansea City

Deepdale 26 August 2023 15.00 hrs

Manager

Michael James Duff (born 11 January 1978) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player. He is the head coach of Championship club Swansea City.

In a professional playing career spanning from 1996 to 2016, in which he made over 600 appearances, Duff played as a defender for Cheltenham Town, Cirencester Town (on loan) and Burnley, winning three Premier League promotions with the latter. He played in each of the top eight tiers of English football in ascending order. At international level, Duff earned 24 caps for Northern Ireland.

After retiring as a player, Duff coached at Burnley's academy before becoming manager of Cheltenham Town in 2018. In 2021, he led Cheltenham to their first automatic promotion from League Two as champions. He was appointed head coach of Barnsley in 2022, leading them to the League One play-off final in his first season. One month later, Duff was named head coach of Swansea City.

LAST TIME OUT





We've met before





To quote Max Boyce I know I was there

https://www.swanseacity.com/

https://www.not606.com/forums/swansea-city.55/

https://www.scfc2.co.uk/forum/

Fixtures

[themaclad]

Who’s Available?


Ali McCann, who missed last weekend’s victory over Sheffield Wednesday through injury, will be available on Saturday after returning to training.

Ben Whiteman has also been back in parts of training as of Thursday morning, but he won’t be ready for the weekend as he continues his recovery from a hernia operation.

Robbie Brady is back on the grass himself, while Emil Riis might make a return as early as 16th September when PNE host Plymouth Argyle at Deepdale.

Opposition Focus


Swansea City looked like a side on the up, having had a few seasons developing under the management of Russell Martin, so it was a blow for the Welsh outfit when he was poached by Southampton.

It looked as though they would have a challenge on their hands to keep hold of 20-goal striker Joël Piroe, and that's one which they look to have lost if rumours are to be believed, however fans were understandably delighted to see captain Matt Grimes recently sign a new deal.

Under new head coach Michael Duff, the side from South Wales are looking for their first victory of the Sky Bet Championship season, having drawn against Birmingham City and Coventry City at home, and they also lost 3-2 at The Hawthorns.

A Recent Clash


Brad Potts scored the only goal of the evening as PNE came out 1-0 winners against Swansea City on the opening day of November 2022.


Match Officials

Referee: Josh Smith
Assistant Referees: Matthew Jones and Sam Lewis
Fourth Official: Anthony Backhouse

Josh Smith will referee Saturday’s match, having last taken charge of a PNE fixture in February 2023 when he sent Ben Whiteman off in a 1-1 draw against Luton Town.


MACS VIEW

Tumbleweed deja vu on the transfer front, Everton still pratting Cannon about however we have other irons in the fire, on Saturday we will no doubt get Jerry Yates scoring against us again, still think we should have signed him but we didn't.
Swansea in transiition under new leadership probably still a week of uncertainty surrounding Piroe, should be a closely contested game or fight as it was at the end of last season

[themaclad]

Swansea sell Piroe

[themaclad]

Match blog tomorrow did write on but the sodding computer froze and lost everything including the will to live

[themaclad]

Preston North End 2 Hughes, Holmes Swansea Cit 1 Ashby

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Browne, Ledson, Best (McCann, 63); Holmes (Whatmough, 85), Frøkjær (Woodburn, 90+3); Keane. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Rodriguez-Gentile, Mawene, Seary.PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Browne, Ledson, Best (McCann, 63); Holmes (Whatmough, 85), Frøkjær (Woodburn, 90+3); Keane. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Rodriguez-Gentile, Mawene, Seary.

Swansea City line-up: Rushworth; Darling, Cabango, Wood; Ashby (Abdulai, 80), Fulton (Allen, 80), Grimes, Patino (Cooper, 71), Key; Cullen (Paterson, 71), Yates (Kukharevych, 84). Subs not used: Fisher, Naughton, Congreve.

Attendance: 14,464 (765 Swansea City fans).

Referee: Mr J Smith.

Attempt number two

Heady heights for North End after the 2-1 victory over Swansea, 5th place in the league, not bad for a side that are woefully short of depth in the squad, only one fit forwrd and a host of kids on the bench, as we approach the transfer deadline this is a make or break week for the team.
Never been overly taken by Mr Lowe but fair play to him got it right yesterday with a substitution and a change of fomation.
Having laboured for an hour against a Swansea side who as ever passed the ball better than us, the gaffer went 433 and in an instant we looked far better.
Trailing to a goal 15 minutes before the break North End were having great difficulty in breaking down the well organised visitors, we had a couple of efforts both from Frokjaer both miles over the bar he should have done better but the Danish Messi was having a frustrating game until the change.
Swansea deserved their lead at the break the goal came after Patino and the impressive Key linked down the left Patino's ball to the far post saw ASHBY in space, good finish, Swans 1 up.
As per the Sunderand game Swansea exploited the space behind young Best, he's young and will learn to defend.
Swanssea should have gone 2 up but wasted a glorious chance Fulton got away following a quick free kick instead of shooting tried to pass to a team mate Hughes great interception. Keane fired a shot which was goal bound Rushworth did well to save it.
Second half Swansea quite happy to absord pressure our slow build up made it easy for them then cae the change Best withdrawn McCann on and then we were on the front foot, Hughes bombing down the left Frokjaer looking much better wide eft, fired narrowly over the bar and then following a bit of pressure Browne ball into the box, HUGHES glances header home.
Swansea made changes and Paterson following a misplaced Frokjaer passed was narrowly over the bar from 20 yards.
The winner cames after a bout of possession by us Frokjaer megged a Swans player ball into centre missed by Ledson but not by HOLMES wh fired home.
City brought on Kuharevich he could have scored and could have been sent off for appearing to stick one on Storey but we survived and are on track to play Southampton in the play offs.

Preston manager Ryan Lowe:

"Fair play to the group. They have been fantastic. Going a goal down was tough - and we could have done better with their goal - but [it is pleasing] to show the attitude and application to limit Swansea to one chance on goal, then second half to pick it up.

"We asked for a little bit more in the pressing and changed shape obviously which gets us the two goals, then we changed the shape back to keep the result.

"Fair play to the lads, they are taking on the instructions. To show that resilience, application and attitude to come back is very pleasing for me."

Swansea head coach Michael Duff:

"I thought we were dominant, definitely in the first half. They changed their shape, went 4-4-2, stuck it down our throats and we didn't deal with it well enough.

"The frustration is that loads of things we've worked on have come out really well. A little bit of that final ball, the final moment could have been better.

"We are in that place at the moment where we are 1-0 up and we are not quite sure. It's like 'what do we do?'. That's the mentality we have to shift. Teams are not just going to roll over - you are not going to have it your own way.

"It's been a difficult week, you are planning with Joel here, then he's not here. That's football - you have to get on with it."