[themaclad]

The hoops arrive at Deepdale on the back of a rather excellent recovery against those Bees from Brentford on Monday night, having been two down deep into injury time they managed to conjure two late goals for an unlikely point although delighted with the point young Mr Holloway was less than impressed with the home fans who had departed early, you know what he was absolutely spot on, never leave before the end as something always happens.
Rangers started the season well but since beating Ipswich on 9 September have only managed two league wins strangely both against the top two Wolves and Sheff Utd.
Squad wise they have lost Freeman for this game as he is suspended, he got sent off in the corresponding fixture last season, signed Josh Scowen from Barnsley who at one time we were supposed to be after, have a useful keeper in Alex Smithies plus ex Nobber Alex Baptiste in defence. If in trouble they tend to throw on ex Dr Who Matt Smith who did the business on Monday also paid big money for Conor Washington from Peterborough, he's not really hit top form since the move but is a danger.
Johnson missing for us as he hit five bookings last Saturday however the pocket terminator Pearson is back from his ban.The point on Monday will have lifted Rangers spirits however it's time for a home win.

Manager Alex Neil will be delighted to have skipper Tom Clarke and Declan Rudd both come through unscathed from 90 minutes in Tuesday’s Lancashire Senior Cup tie at Bury.
He will still be without Josh Earl, who underwent an operation on his cartilage in his knee on Wednesday that will rule him out for a number of weeks.

Greg Cunningham is still a few weeks away from joining in training, but has stepped up his running after the operation to reconnect his hamstring back in August and Tommy Spurr has been given the go ahead to remove his brace after his knee operation.

Irish striker Sean Maguire will remain in his brace for a number of weeks, following his successful operation – the same one undergone by Cunningham earlier in the campaign.

Ben Pearson returns after a one match ban, but Daniel Johnson must sit out the game, after his fifth booking of the season at Norwich City last weekend – although the five booking deadline has now passed.

The only other doubt for the manager remain Stephy Mavididi, who missed the trip to
Norwich last weekend after playing three games in close proximity after a spell away with England.

Stat Attack: Queens Park Rangers

Today we welcome one of the few other league clubs to have a three part name. PNE, QPR – which others can you name?

Although we seem to have faced each other on many occasions, this is only the 19th league visit to Deepdale for the Rs since they first ventured north in 1949. Although they returned the following year, it was not until 1967 that they played here again.

That was the first of only two victories for our visitors, the second coming in 1980 when QPR were going through something of a golden spell thanks to the goals of Clive Allen and Paul Goddard, both of whom were on the mark in that 3-0 scoreline.

We have won five and drawn six of the 11 meetings since and all have been by a solitary goal, apart from our resounding 5-0 win in 2001.

The only goalless draws came in 1969 and 2007, so history suggests there will be goals today, although possibly not very many.
Clive Clark is well remembered by older fans for his starring role in our 1970/71 championship side having signed from the Super Hoops in January 1970. Prior to that, he had started his career with Leeds before moving to QPR and then on to West Bromwich Albion, When he faced his former side in the 1967 League Cup Final, Clive scored twice but couldn’t stop third division Rangers triumphing 3-2 in one of the biggest upsets in English football history.

Others to wear the hoops and the lilywhite shirt include Patrick Agyemang, Gareth Ainsworth, Clarke Carlisle, Paul Magee and Michael Robinson. Brett Angell counts both clubs amongst his 14 league clubs, having spent time on loan here from Stockport as he added to our promotion push in 2000 before ending his English career at Loftus Road.

On This Date
We have had two big home wins on this date in previous years, overcoming Oldham by 5-1 in 1922 and beating Scunthorpe United 4-1 on their first visit here in 1961.

Steve Basham is 40 today and is still fondly remembered at Deepdale for his short spell at Deepdale. After scoring ten goals in 1998/99 on loan from Southampton, Steve joined us permanently the following summer, but a badly broken leg in October 2000 effectively ended his North End career when he was only 24.
Dutch striker Erik Meijer made the last of his nine appearances this date in 2000 having joined us from Liverpool. He failed to meet expectations with either club and joined SV Hamburg soon after his spell at Deepdale ended.

Last Five Games At Deepdale
Preston North End 2 (McGeady, Hugill) Queens Park Rangers 1 (LuaLua), 25th Feb 2017
Preston North End 1 (Doyle) Queens Park Rangers 1 (Polter), 19th Mar 2016
Preston North End 1 (Nicholson) Queens Park Rangers 1 (Helguson), 19th Feb 2011
Preston North End 2 (Jones, Davidson (pen)) Queens Park Rangers 2 (Ramage, Priskin), 27th Mar 2010
Preston North End 2 (Parkin, St. Ledger) Queens Park Rangers 1 (Agyemang), 3rd May 2009

Ref Watch: Queens Park Rangers
This afternoon it is a first visit to Deepdale this season for Carnforth referee Jeremy Simpson as the man with the whistle.

Last year, the select group two match official took the role for our Boxing Day clash with Leeds United and the Lilywhites’ Roses victory over Huddersfield Town in October, as well as acting as fourth official at two home games.

He also was in charge when North End took on Stoke City at PR1 in pre-season that year, and is an experienced official, with plenty of Championship action under his belt.

So far this season, he has taken charge of 19 mostly Championship games, issuing 78 cautions and two red cards, but has also not yet taken charge of QPR, as well as PNE.
This weekend Jeremy will be assisted by Adam Matthews and James Wilson, whilst Scott Duncan will be the fourth official.

[themaclad]

Preston North End 1 (Hugill) Queens Park Rangers 0

PNE: Maxwell, Fisher, Clarke (O'Connor 46), Huntington, Davies, Pearson, Gallagher, Barkhuizen, Browne (Harrop 46), Robinson, Hugill. Subs (not used): Boyle, Horgan, Pringle, Welsh, Rudd.

QPR: Smithies, Wszolek, Baptiste, Robinson, Bidwell, Wheeler (Smith 73), Scowen, Luongo, Chair (Sylla 90), Mackie, Washington. Subs (not used): Cousins, Manning, Goss, Smyth, Lumley.

Referee: Jeremy Simpson (Carnforth) Attendance: 11,290 (518 away)

A long overdue home win although it only came through a goal a couple of minutes from the end against a side who had been reduced to ten men following a Mackie tackle on Tom Clarke after 22 minutes, he may have been a bit unlucky however the referee was closer than I was and gave him a straight red. Pity really because up to that point it had been a really open game, Rangers had gone close from a free kick by Scowen, Browne had two chance for us one he really should have scored and Clarke was narrowly wide with a header however once Rangers were reduced to 10 we seemed to change formation on several occasions which seemed to play into the visitors hands.
Barkhuizen nearly broke the deadlock early in the second half with a first time volley that brought a good one handed save fom Smithies and we did get slightly fortunate when a close range Rangers effort ended in Maxwell's hands when it could have so easily gone into the net. Apart from a Gallagher long ranger we created little, and our oh so ponderous build up made it easy for Rangers to defend in depth. Indeed Rangers began to push forward on the break and were reward with a series of free kicks around the edge of the box, they wasted most of them although the last one from Chair went agonisingly past the far post.
Just as it seemed destined to end goalless a quality through ball from Fisher found Hugill took the ball in his stride and side footed it past Smithies for the winner.
Rangers had one last chance defender Robinson found himself 20 yards from goal hit a goal bound shot which Maxwell did superbly to save. The visitors lost their heads in the last couple of minutes a couple of crude challenges and another red card after the final whistle for probably industrial language by Baptiste to the referee.
Not pretty but three points in the end.
Preston boss Alex Neil:

"When you play against 10 men, people think it's easy to roll them over and go on and win. But we had to be on our guard and be patient.

"We made a couple of tactical changes at half time. We could feel the fans desperation to get the goal.

"I'm delighted for Jordan as he's been waiting four or five games for that goal. He does a great job for us at the top end of the pitch."

QPR manager Ian Holloway on the two red cards:

"Now I've got two sending offs in a game where I didn't see a bad foul. I think it was a second yellow for Alex. He got the first for bouncing the ball down.

"Then Alex refused to shake [former team-mate] Ben Pearson's hand and he called him something. The referee told me that he thought he'd said it to him.

"We will be appealing Jamie Mackie's red and that's all I can say about it."

QPR manager Ian Holloway on his team's performance:

"It was a bitterly disappointing day on the road again because our performance with all the people we've got out was absolutely terrific.

"Unfortunately, we've got no points when we should have got at least one. We've lost 1-0. But am I proud? Yes. Is it a bad run we're in? Yes. Can we get out of it? Yes."