Ahead of our return to the SoL on Saturday, we caught up with Preston fan Ben Baldwin to give us the lowdown on his team so far this season...
You guys have scored just three goals all season, although conceding just four! What's going on at Deepdale?
The club isn’t in a great place at the moment - it hasn’t been for a while, in truth. The issues aren’t as in-your-face as they have been previously or as they might be at some other clubs, but there is a deep sense of apathy setting in at Deepdale. Every summer since we returned to the Championship, the club has been far too frugal in the market - making it virtually impossible for us to realistically compete for a top six spot over a 46-game season. The club has been run passively, and it has culminated in us having the most toothless football team in the league this season. We just don’t score goals.
What are your thoughts on gaffer Ryan Lowe?
My thoughts are simply that any manager we have is going to struggle given the constraints they are under. Ryan Lowe just hasn’t been backed in the two windows he has had, just as Alex Neil and Simon Grayson weren’t backed before him. The previous regime under Frankie McAvoy (with Peter Ridsdale controlling transfers) was predictably a disaster, and the arrival of a vibrant young manager felt like the perfect tonic last December. That sense of optimism remained going into the new season, but the honeymoon period is now over and he’ll be starting to feel the pressure.
The side are 15th in the league, would you be happy if you finished in this position?
We never expect to be in the top two or even the top six - we just want a bit of hope that we could slip in to contention for those places going into the latter stages of the season. If we are still in with a chance of the play-offs come March/April most fans will be happy. Even if we were to collapse in the home straight and end up in the bottom half of the table. It depends on how we get there.
Who's been your best player this season?
A bright spark in recent weeks has been Alvaro Fernandez, on loan from Man Utd. He suits the left wing back role and looks to have that little bit of quality we need. The player of the season so far would have to be a defender though, and I’ll go for Jordan Storey. Storey was initially unfancied by Lowe and was sent out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday last January. But this season he has a been mainstay at centre-back, and a big part of why our defensive record has been so good. He’s an old-school defender, and it’s good to see him back in the side doing well.
Clearly goalscoring is a problem, but are there any other weaknesses for Sunderland to look out for?
We’re not functioning as a team at all. It’s a bit of old cliche, but we do look like a bunch of strangers dragged off the street at the moment. We have decent ball-playing defenders and a midfield filled with good, creative footballers but it is just not showing on the pitch. The side lacks cohesion, and the fact that we are creating so little is a salient issue for the manager to solve.
Bailey Wright is an ex-PNE player. What do you think of him?
He was a part of the promotion side from 2015 so will always be remembered fondly for that, but I think the way he moved on left a bitter taste for a lot of PNE fans. I personally don’t get too hung up on those sort of things, to be honest.
And what about former SAFC and Preston boss, Alex Neil...
He could have left us for Stoke (sound familiar?) in 2019 but decided to stick with the project, then it came back to bite him on the arse when he was let down by our board the following transfer window. As much as I was surprised he left Sunderland, it’s almost as if he didn’t want to make the same mistake again - as if he had regretted his decision to turn them down ever since. Time will tell whether he’s made the right call this time.
Did you sign any big names this summer, or let any important players go?
The only player we paid money for in the summer was Freddie Woodman, from Newcastle. He’s become our number one goalkeeper and I suspect he’ll be extra motivated to keep a clean sheet against Sunderland. Tom Barkhuizen and Scott Sinclair were the notable exits, but neither had really kicked a ball for us since the turn of the year and it did feel like the natural time for them to leave.
Which Sunderland player worries you the most, given that Ross Stewart is now out injured?
Alex Pritchard is always a threat, while Amad Diallo is an interesting one considering the money Man United paid for him. Wary of Ellis Simms too.
What's your score prediction? Who will get the goals?
I’ll be optimistic and go 1-1. Emil Riis for us, Simms for you…
Where do you predict both teams to finish this season?
I’m not afraid we’ll go down but not optimistic we will push for the top six either. There is every indication so far that Sunderland will be in with a shout of the play-offs, but I’d probably put you somewhere between 7th and 12th come May.
