[themaclad]

Twice in a month these two Titans of the Championship clash, this time at Deepdale, the second in a run of tough home games with Arsenal and Brighton next to graced the pristine Deepdale turf.
Must be something in the Yorkshire air this season as they have three sides in the top six, having won at the Toon on Monday a cracking result and from the bit I saw worthy winners. Thed Owls will be in confident mood and will be backed by a large away support having been given close to 6000 tickets, so it should be a good atmosphere at the ground. They have won five out of the last six and are very tight defensively with clean sheets in the last three games.
Lees didn't play at St James's they didn't miss him though.
Strong squad at Carlos's desposal with some very seasoned pro's Fletcher, Wallace, Bannan and Loovens backed up with an abundence of overseas imports including Fernado Forestieri who likes to score a few.
Interesting fact Wednesday beat Spora Luxembourg 8-1 in the UEFA Cup in 1992-93 a competition which we have never remotely got close to ever playing in.
Long term injured Gallagher and Welsh seem no closer to playing, May will probably be back in the squad personal view like to see him get some game time. Beckford suspended again!!!
A couple of points as Becks is unavailable who is Doyle going to fight with and will Fernando get a hat trick of reds against us I'm sure Pearson will be stirring it with him.
Cannot recall the last time we played on New Years Eve although do remember one trip to Peterborough on NYE in teh late 1970's coach broke down, replacement got bricked, got their at half time and lost to a goal in the las 15 seconds a whizzo trip.
Hopefully we will be up for this game to banish the memory of the lat home game.

[Imre varadi]

Its going to be a tough game this one for both ! I always liked Preston who before played some good football or at least tried but watching them lately im starting to dislike them largely down to Grayson and his style of play which is right out of colins book with biting scratching and kicking the opponent in to submission and using a brick wall midfield it is football that only belongs to the pub league as the championship now plays football i expect Fessi will be the target from the off although i doubt this will work a 3rd time as ive felt in my water that fessi will bang in a hatrick sometime soon and get his own back on bullies like grayson bruce and colin

Hope youve had a good xmas despite that feff up against the scum and a happy new year all the best and may you get a manager that the great club deserves in the future

[themaclad]

Strange I do not think we are that kind of side Imre, but that is your opinion which is fair enough. Our front two got a battering from Leeds on Monday took it without responding unlike the sub that came on. To be fair Fernando should be wise to it by now but the Championship is a tough division, we have had three players sent off in the league two for fighting each other and One for being a dick. Yep we pick up booking but personal view do not think we are an overly physical side.

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With football win, lose or draw life goes on, all the best to you Imre as well as well as the others on this forum.

[Southeyowl]

Lees did play at Newcastle!

Lee didn't though!

[themaclad]

Knew it began with L

[themaclad]

Would have taken a point against Wednesday however the 94th minute Reach equaliser makes it feel as we lost the game, suspect the wine will get a battering after that goal tonight.
A tight game especially the first half which was interesting without being even close to exciting, as Wednesday set out their stall not to lose but to sneak one on the break, however with Forestieri the forward line of Fletcher and Nuhiu was more built for strength then speed. Well organised at the back Wednesday restricted North End to a couple of shots from distance and one header from Makienok which he really should have scored with.
Wednesday threatened little going forward although from the corners they had their big lads needed watching.
A flat atmosphere didn't help proceedings and it looked a classic 0-0 all draw.
Wednesdy became a little more adventurous in the second half which helped the game open up, of the two though North End still looked more likely to score although the final ball could have been better, McGeady being a culprit, saying that though he had a decent game today. Westwood fumbled a Robinson shot and jut about stopped it squirming free to McGeady, at the other end Maxwell had an easy time although Bannan's crosses caused problems. North End had the ball in the net twice but one was offside the other was an alleged foul on Westwood.
Then with 13 minutes to go McGeady fed in Cunningham, he advanced towards goal, his shot took a deflection and went over Westwood into the net. Deserved lead, within a minute McGeady had hit the post from 20 yards, there was a possible penalty shout for handball in the Wednesday area but North End were comfortable dealing with Wednesday's ponderous build up until the 94th minute.
Virtually everybody was in the North End area ball bounced around for hours before landing at the feet of Reach, left foot. bulging net, a point for Wednesday, it was their first shot on target all afternoon.
They didn't deserve a point but got one, finally for a change no one was sent off.

Happy New Year folks.

Preston North End 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1 Att 14800

Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal told BBC Radio Sheffield: "Adam Reach didn't perform so well but he is a player that will fight a lot and run a lot.

"We tried to keep the ball and expected to play more in the offensive half and get more crosses in.

"But Preston gave us problems, so we tried to do different things and tried to do things with pace.

"The one player we have with pace is Reach, so we put him in a more attacking position."

[St Charles Owl]

Fair assessment Themaclad!! We deserved nothing today and got lucky with a pinball situation in stoppage time, you should have been a couple up by that stage. Both your disallowed goals seemed to be the right decision from the tv coverage, although the foul on Westwood would have been fine 25 years ago of course! Like us you seem to lack that poacher who can score 20 a season by being in the right place at the right time, they are hard to come by but when you don't have one and the other strikers are misfiring it becomes a glaring hole!!!

Happy New Year to you, good luck for the rest of the season!!

[themaclad]

Cheers SCO all the best to you as well, personal view a striker is key to us going close maybe not this season though and for the Owls you need Fernando firing

[St Charles Owl]

Cheers SCO all the best to you as well, personal view a striker is key to us going close maybe not this season though and for the Owls you need Fernando firing

We need Fernando playing for starters!!!!

Fairly good summing up by Grayson:

Preston manager Simon Grayson: "When the opposition score so late in the game it's hard to take.

"But when you look at how well we played and how much we dominated, we can be very proud of our performance.

"The players played very well and made a very good team look very average. Sheffield shouldn't have got anything out of the game.

"We just couldn't get the ball cleared at the end. We needed one really good clearance. If we had done it would have been game over."