[themaclad]

Norwich City 0 Preston North End 0

Norwich City line-up: Gunn; Stacey (Fisher, 72), Duffy, McClean, Giannoulis (Placheta, 81); Fassnacht (Gibbs, 56), Sara, Núñez, Hernandez (Sainz, 72); Barnes (Rowe, 56), Idah. Subs not used: Long, McCallum, Batth, Forshaw.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Whatmough, Lindsay; Potts, Whiteman, McCann (Ledson, 88), Hughes (Brady, 88); Evans, Browne; Millar (Holmes, 63). Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Keane, Frøkjær, Woodburn, Best.

Attendance: 25,761 (504 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr O Langford.

7am starts are always fun at this time you are lucky if you see any daylight and with te weather yesterday this was limited even more, lashing rain, low mist even the second city was not visible in the gloom.
Arrived nice and early wandered round the vicinity over the river around the ground a couple of times, suspect Norwich is better in the sun.

Team selection by Mr Fantastic screamed draw is our preferred option. First 20 minutes little happened apart from it poured down,, got increasingly windy and a sudden drop in warmth.

Norwich got on top Hernandez should have preobably done better when through, decent save by Woodman, some shots from distance which were well blocked. The Norwich penalty box was probably on teh Christmas wish list for the team as we never actually got in it until the 45th minute.

Second period much better slightly more entertaining, Lindsay headed wide and Potts fired just over. City again looked dangerous but to be fir we defended well and cloed them out when they got in the area. Whiteman hit the bar , but the two best chance fell to the home side, Gibbs played through missed a sitter, Brownecleared brilliantly off the line. Deep in injury time Whatmough denied by a good block by a City defender.
Set out for a point mission achieved whether we deseved it is for another day.

Journey home in gale force winds wonderful.

Norwich head coach David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:

"I have no complaints about the shift put in by the players but offensively we lacked a bit of creativity and were not ruthless.

"In a game like this, you will not create nine or 10 clear-cut chances, but we created two or three and these are the moments when you have to kill the game.

"But defensively we played very well, our counter press was top class, we nailed them in the final third and more or less gave nothing away.

"They had their first corner in stoppage time, we had 10 so it's clear who should have won this game - it's frustrating, but I can see good things as well."

Preston boss Ryan Lowe:

"It was a solid, resolute performance and our application was spot on.

"This is a difficult place to come to and our attitude going into the game was to keep the back door shut and whatever happens at the other end we will take.

"It is a fantastic point after a disappointing run of results and a lot of hard work has got us there against a good team who have been on a decent run.

"This is an important building block for us and now we need to build on it."

Yep, Dave won on corner sadly it's goals that mean more