Preston North End vs Sheffield United

vs

EFL Championship Matchweek 1 - Friday 9th August 2024 - 20:00 - Deepdale
Please keep all discussion related to the match within this thread.

Player Ratings:
Matchday Stats/Player Ratings - https://www.s24su.com/forum/match-day/match/preston-north-end-vs-sheffield-united.698/

Officials:

Referee: Robert Madley
Assistants: Blake Antrobus, Darren Williams
Fourth Official: Anthony Backhouse

Coverage:

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Live TV Coverage:



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Pre-Match Press Conference:

Preston v Blades - press conferences

Chris Wilder spoke to the media ahead of the season opene at Deepdale.

www.sufc.co.uk

​

 

[MILLERtheBLADE]

Agree with everything that’s been said. Some superb performances, especially considering it was only the first game of the season.

More to come from Hamer and Moore, but worth reflecting both missed games in pre-season due to injury so the rustiness is to be expected.

 

[Working Class Hero]

Fantastic performance, but would have liked to see more clinical decision making in the final third.
I hope they learn as well, if you aim at it Moore's head he won't win it, partly because there's nobody to flick it on to.
But put it in to his feet, and he kills it dead, turns, and can only be stopped by being fouled

I don't remember him winning a header all night, which surprised me. His hold up play with his feet though, was excellent. As you say, if we can learn from that and play to his strengths, that's going to be a massive asset.

 

[jono_t2000]

Souza MOTM by a mile and Burrows was actually really decent defensively.

But Preston are absolutely dross and League 1 bound.

 

[originaltrueblade]

Blades are back

 

[Bobby b]

Preston looked poor, we've had a great start.
I was worried that we may have lost the dressing room spirit that we've had for the last few years due to all the departures but looking at them all larking about after the game the spirit and togetherness seems to be still there, which is surprising after what happened last season

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

Plenty of positives, plenty of things to work on.

 

[KiwiBlabe]

Souza been my MOM tonight.

Agree with this, easily the best player on the park for me

 

[Karaoke Blade]

Celebrating a point as if we'd got 3...that's very Sheffield Wednesday

Seriously, fantastic performance Blades.

 

[ChipButtyBlade]

Vini the Redeemer
View attachment 190042

Look he's pointing with the left and right.

 

[Shadota]

Superb performance that. No bad performance on the pitch, but Souza was the best of the lot for me. Dominated the midfield, and showed a very smart eye for a pass at times.

O'Hare was great first half, but they tried to mark him out of it 2nd half, and that just opened things up for Brooks instead. Agree with the other COH comments - just needs to reign things in a tad and he'll be devastating.

Burrows and Gilchrist did very well, Gilchrist especially having only been signed for a couple of days. Pleased for the defence overall too for keeping the clean sheet - can't remember the last time we had one!

 

[CoatesyBlade]

Take a bow big Vini! I’d give him 10/10 for tonight if not for that dreadful shot first half
9/10 MOTM

 

[CoatesyBlade]

Boys (and girls) we cannot sing “how shit must you be, we’re winning away” this year!
That means WE are shit… and we are here to win the league!
UTB

 

[JJBlade]

I don't remember him winning a header all night, which surprised me. His hold up play with his feet though, was excellent. As you say, if we can learn from that and play to his strengths, that's going to be a massive asset.

Difficult to win a header though whilst up against two who are pulling, holding and fighting for it themselves.
Particularly when he'll be thinking "WTF was that, what am I going to do with it even if I win it"
But crosses into the box when he has time to get himself positioned properly is a different kettle of fish, we just didn't get that many good crosses in though.

I liked the way he didn't contest the header just before he put the volley over the bar, he couldn't win it, so stepped back and waited for the second ball.
Shame he rushed the volley

 

[Jinxy1966]

Preston looked poor, we've had a great start.
I was worried that we may have lost the dressing room spirit that we've had for the last few years due to all the departures but looking at them all larking about after the game the spirit and togetherness seems to be still there, which is surprising after what happened last season

Agree about the apparent bond between the players at the end. That “band of brothers” mentality made me smile as much as the result.

 

[Lowen]

Preston ended last season terribly but still finished 10th, if they’re an example of an average to above average side in this division this season is going to be a lot of fun.

 

[1973Blade]

What a pleasure to enjoy watching United. Souza, Brooks, O Hare, Robinson and Anel looked impressive. A good lob by Hamer, but sorry he is getting a low score from me today.

 

[Jan Age]

Lots of positives…

1. A win an actual win
2. A clean sheet
3. When it clicked it looked great
4. Technical players being brave with the ball
5. Davies had one shot to save all
Game

Things to work on;

1. Shoot actually shoot instead of trying to walk it in.
2. We didn’t force the keeper in to one save despite our excellent forward play.
3.gave possession away too easily at times better teams will punish us.

But overall it’s nice to sit with my son and actually enjoy the game

 

[Jan Age]

I think brook has played good hamer been weak link in midfield up to now

Brooks was much improved second half I admit

Hamer ran the show and our standards dropped considerably when he went off

 

[Harry's Game]

Just saw this from earlier… not crying honest…

 

[NuddysGloves]

I know he spent all game on the bench but I still think Grbic did well not to concede tonight, do his confidence the world of good that will.

 

[Dnblade]

Souza was immense on and off the ball ran the show..plenty of good performances,i though we moved the ball well,clean sheet,and we will get better when things start to gel more.

 

[Yakblade]

Seriki impressed me when he came on. Solid defensively (not that he had a lot to do) but looked really good going forward. Could be his breakthrough season

 

[Greg.]

Highlights:

 

[Lucky1979]

Be surprised if we get an easier game all season. Solid performances from everyone. Souza did really well, won lots of challenges

 

[bonobo]

Brooks was the best of the 3 attacking midfielders for me and that seems to be his position on the right side. He switches the ball so quickly with very little body movement when he cuts in on his left side, which is what you need if you are going to play this inverted role, McAtee for all his talents used to take a massive arch when he cut back and allowed the defence plenty of time to adjust. Thought Robinson was granite as ever, Burrows looked good defensively as well, shame we could not get him forward more. Do wonder if Hamer and OHAre, would be better suited to switching stating positions, but we will see. Apart from the finishing a very solid all round performance and even more impressive given where we have come from with the squad.

 

[moody1889]

Brooks has been fantastic!

Brooks was brilliant and his run that almost set up Moore reminded me of his name sake David.

 

[gordoncharles]

It was good, generally cohesive, we created opportunites and we look like we'll do that with these players.

But..... our defence and keeper were rarely tested because Preston were absolutely shocking. Even then there were times we got in a right old flap when the ball was in our penalty area - even though that wasn't very often

So some of last season's problems haven't been ironed out, fortunately we're not going to get punished as often for those this season, but it will still happen.

It's only one showing but I/we know what we can expect from these players. I have no real idea about Preston's but on the basis of that they'll struggle to get out of the bottom six and their "Wednesday Legend" manager may well find himself no longer the second-longest serving Championship manager in pretty short order.

 

[moody1889]

Good point.....yes O'Hare has looked class (his close control reminds me of Alex Sabella) but he's showboating with his tricks and flicks some of the time and it's not come off. He had a great chance in the 1st half and tried taking on 2 or 3 players then walking it into the net.

Commentator just said
"On another night if Sheff United were more clinical this would have been 4 or 5 nil" and he's right. Very very easy win.....too easy.

Match now finished, commentator said "it was much more comfortable than the 2-0 scoreline suggests".

Should have been minimum 4-0

 

[Irv]

A rare clean sheet... Does this mean all the bed wetters out there can take day off the laundry?

All the soiling will be being done in Pig households tonight, sat glued to their communal firestick as their dreams of finishing above us disappeared before their very eyes.

 

[Irv]

It was good, generally cohesive, we created opportunites and we look like we'll do that with these players.

But..... our defence and keeper were rarely tested because Preston were absolutely shocking. Even then there were times we got in a right old flap when the ball was in our penalty area - even though that wasn't very often

So some of last season's problems haven't been ironed out, fortunately we're not going to get punished as often for those this season, but it will still happen.

It's only one showing but I/we know what we can expect from these players. I have no real idea about Preston's but on the basis of that they'll struggle to get out of the bottom six and their "Wednesday Legend" manager may well find himself no longer the second-longest serving Championship manager in pretty short order.

If you can find it, have a watch of a video of ex-Liverpool gangster Darren Gee talking about Lowe. Let’s just say he allegedly has a family business he can fall back on should he find himself out of work.