Pre-Match Press Conferences - Preston North End (H)

[Pintor75]

Did/have we had the " Preston are a great club, great team, great supporters they have some great players" yet or is that later?

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

Owt from Heckeh yet?

 

[Cappy]

Owt from Heckeh yet?

Their presser was this arvo - very recently - not live streamed. No video just yet.

Lancashire Times has just posted this at 3:30


Preston North End injury blow confirmed as Paul Heckingbottom coy over team news for Sheffield United
By George Hodgson

Published 7th Mar 2025, 15:30 GMT

Paul Heckingbottom spoke to the media on Friday afternoon ahead of the trip to Sheffield United

Preston North End have been dealt an injury blow to midfielder Ali McCann. The Northern Ireland was forced off in the second half of Tuesday’s goalless draw against Swansea City, due to a calf issue. McCann is now set for a spell on the sidelines with manager Paul Heckingbottom confirming that the number eight won’t feature until after the international break.

On a more positive note, club captain Ben Whiteman is back in the fold ahead of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United - one of his former clubs. The skipper has been out for around six weeks with a nasty ankle blow but is in full training again. PNE’s boss was coy over Mads Frokjaer and Stefan Thordarson’s chances.

“Ali’s out,” said Heckingbottom. “A muscle problem, so he’ll be after the break. The rest, you’ll have to see tomorrow. I have not named a team today. I am giving nothing away. You will have to wait and see tomorrow. He (Whiteman) has been dropping in and out for the last few days.

“The bits where he's in a bit more control and then the last couple of days he's trained properly, done a little bit extra with me yesterday - just to try and top up his football that he's missing. So yeah, he's missed quite a bit of time but he's had two days training now.

“He's happy where he is in terms of his ankle. He's getting more and more comfortable with it every day, so that's good news. (Jordan Storey) is a week or two behind Ben in terms of his progression. We've not seen anything of Jordan training with us or anything.”

On the boost of having his captain back, Heckingbottom added: “Yeah, good. We've been struggling of late in terms of the injuries. Just everything. I say it all the time, I want everyone fit. One of the questions you always get asked when everyone's fit is ‘How do you pick your team?’

“I’d take that every day of the week for lots of reasons. Imagine the work you can do in the week, the quality of your training all week, how you're preparing and the consistent messages you're getting to people when you're missing them for months at a time.

“They feel like they're falling behind and the team's progressed. You're having to recap things. You could see when we had all those options from the bench... it didn’t half help us get over the line in some games. I don't think it's a coincidence we had some really comfortable wins in those times.”

“That’s been a pattern that’s been flagged up.”

The Preston boss, a period towards the end of 2024 aside, has rarely had the luxury of a fully fit squad to pick from. It’s something previous manager Ryan Lowe spoke a lot about looking into and whether PNE could do anything differently. Heckingbottom has pinpointed one thing that might improve fortunes.

“Yeah, I was looking at it,” said Heckingbottom. “Robbie (Brady) with his ankle and his ribs, Ben with his ankle, Jordan with his ankle, Duane (Holmes) with his broken leg. It's the soft tissue injuries that you always think you can do more on; there's been a pattern here and we've just been speaking about it.

“This time of year it's injuries like Ali's calf. Between December and March the pitches get heavier. That's been a pattern over the last few years that's been flagged up. So, it's things like that that you're trying to alter. The other bit is one or two players have had bad luck this season. But that's part and parcel.

“The injury situation is not going to get any better, believe you me. The way the game is going, the amount of games, the nature of the way the games are played now and what's expected from a player. I think substitutes are going to become even more important and that's back to the squad and how we use it.”

 

[Cappy]

Last clip from Blades YT channel

 

[Cappy]

Linds Talks About ‘Buzz’ Ahead Of Sheffield United

Liam Lindsay says there’s a good buzz around the PNE training ground right now, as the team prepare for a three-game week.

The first of those comes at Bramall Lane on Saturday when Paul Heckingbottom’s side take on promotion-pushing Sheffield United.

The Blades currently sit second in the league and are one of the division’s top teams, although there’s no suggestion from Linds that North End will go there with any fear.

Liam said: “It’s not an easy place to go. They’re obviously up there second in the league pushing for automatics so it’ll be a tough game, but we’ll just use the feelings you get after winning and use that to try and keep building on it and getting wins.

“I think we’ve proven over the season with the top teams coming to us or going to their places, we’ve been more than a match.

“On our day we can run over anyone and we’ll take confidence from that. That’s what we’ll be looking to do on Saturday.”

It’s been a positive week so far for the Lilywhites, who last Saturday progressed to the Emirates FA Cup quarter-finals, before putting in a dominant display in a draw against Swansea City.

Aston Villa are next up in the cup, however that’s been put to the side for now given that all focus is on the busy league schedule.

Liam said: “That’s what us as footballers do anyway. You can’t really get too high because there’s always games coming thick and fast, so we’ll just park that to one side.

“Obviously the Villa game will be good when it comes to it, but we’ve got three more tough league games coming up.”

Source: PNE Website

 

[Cappy]

Hecky's Presser

Video

https://www.pnefc.net/videos/0_4ccfnl27

Good to see him looking well and chirpy. Good lad is Hecky

Injuries and Absences

• Mentioned above in post #33, so I won't repeat

On his return to Bramall Lane vs Sheffield United

• The Blades are "one of the best in the league. People always talk about Leeds but Sheffield United are right there with them. Ruthlessly efficient, and big moments from big players. A stand-out quality to me is their mentality and it's why they're right up there"
• He said he looks forward to these types of fixture and relishes them ,"but so do the players. We do really well against the big teams. Everyone writes us off but we enjoy that kind of thing"
• Will it be nice to return to BDTBL? "It would have been nice to return as a fan before [this game] and see people, but we are there in a job and are there to win a game. You have routines and it it doesn't involve thinking about an opposition in any other way beyond how you try to beat them"
• "If I went back in a few months as a fan and saw people then that would have a different feeling and I would enjoy that"
• "We need as many [points] as possible. It should be the most exciting part of the season, and I've had that in my career and want to maintain that. Each game should feel bigger and bigger towards the end [of the season]

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Sounds like Preston have alot of injuries then

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Irrespective of any other matters , I sincerely hope that Hecky gets the warmth and appreciation he most thoroughly deserves from our fans .

This applies to both his work with the Academy and his subsequent efforts after taking on the manager’s role in the most difficult of circumstances and which eventually led to promotion .

To me it is unthinkable that anyone should boo him but given the mentality of some of our so called supporters , I’m concerned that this may not be the case .

 

[SouthStandGBlock]

Just listened to it again while having a very painful shower

I missed him saying Souttar is coming up for the game tomorrow to support the lads

Whose shower were you using? You might want to fiddle with your nozzle a bit whilst you're in there. Use the rain setting if it's hurting

 

[lazyfecklessblade]

‘Heckingbottom coy on availability of injured players’

We know what that means - their treatment room’s looking like an episode of ER, poor fuckers.

 

[Dkc]

Irrespective of any other matters , I sincerely hope that Hecky gets the warmth and appreciation he most thoroughly deserves from our fans .

This applies to both his work with the Academy and his subsequent efforts after taking on the manager’s role in the most difficult of circumstances and which eventually led to promotion .

To me it is unthinkable that anyone should boo him but given the mentality of some of our so called supporters , I’m concerned that this may not be the case .

Doubt anyone will boo him. Can't see why.

Hope Ched gets a decent reception too if he comes on. He's just got on with his career after the court case, and has been a model pro at Preston. This is probably the last time he'll visit BL as a player.

 

[ITALIANO BLADE]

blades will win pne 4.0

 

[Bell4]

Listen, Preston North End are an incredible incredible football club. No club is more championshippy than them. They make being in the championship season after season look easy and I'm in awe of that. But I'm even more in awe of Hecky. Top top manager and easily the best in the league - that's just how it is - so if we can fluke a result against him that would be unbelievable

I shouldn’t , but I find your Wilder bigging up - love in posts funny

 

[Bell4]

Irrespective of any other matters , I sincerely hope that Hecky gets the warmth and appreciation he most thoroughly deserves from our fans .

This applies to both his work with the Academy and his subsequent efforts after taking on the manager’s role in the most difficult of circumstances and which eventually led to promotion .

To me it is unthinkable that anyone should boo him but given the mentality of some of our so called supporters , I’m concerned that this may not be the case .

As I have said many times before
The guy deserves a statue for saving our club

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

I shouldn’t , but I find your Wilder bigging up - love in posts funny

That's because you're a top top football poster, probably the best there's ever been

 

[ITALIANO BLADE]

i love this thread its positive i like your posts cappy m8,i love the mighty sufc for life buddy ,take care pal.blades will win buddy..utb..

 

[Cappy]

i love this thread its positive i like your posts cappy m8,i love the mighty sufc for life buddy ,take care pal.blades will win buddy..utb..

Thanks mate hope you’re feeling good today and your mighty blades make you feel even better later

3-0

Campbell
Hamer
Burrows

 

[Frank the tank]

Listen, Preston North End are an incredible incredible football club. No club is more championshippy than them. They make being in the championship season after season look easy and I'm in awe of that. But I'm even more in awe of Hecky. Top top manager and easily the best in the league - that's just how it is - so if we can fluke a result against him that would be unbelievable

 

[ITALIANO BLADE]

Thanks mate hope you’re feeling good today and your mighty blades make you feel even better later

3-0

Campbell
Hamer
Burrows

cheers pal.i hope your ok,family ok,top fella you cappy pal.i love all your content it will be great to meet you on the kop one day bro,yep blades will win m8ty,take care buddy

 

[ITALIANO BLADE]

1.0 great home win blades lads,great goal ty