In a game of two halves - one lacking a bit of passion and the other lacking just about any - the Lads fairly cruised past the Lilywhites without really getting into top gear. That's the moan over - you can't really grumble about winning 2-0 - but you have to wonder what we could have done had we really got right into them. A very welcome return by Alese, and a start for Pritch and Rusyn had us upbeat before kickoff and expecting liveliness.
An early start had us in town by 0935 and thus a Spoons visit, then we got the team news that had us happy.
Patterson
Hume O'Nien Ballard Alese
Neil Ekwah
Pritchard Bellingham Clarke
Rusyn
..and a bench of Bishuuurrrp, Ba, Seelt, Mayenda, Pembele, Burstow, Aouchiche, Rigg, and Triantis.
We defended the north and and kicked off, with Hume's first-minute interception setting Pritch away, and we eventually got it to Clarke who shot across and wide. A promising start, but it was Patto who had to make the first save after PNE broke down their left. Not to be deterred, Clarke and Jobe combined down the left to set up Ekwah to shoot wide. There was a corner a minute later but that was cleared, although we won the ball back and Ekwah took his time to find Pritchard - and Alex took a couple of paces forward from his central position to fire past the keeper's left hand and it. Boom! What a beauty.
Rusyn was working hard up top by himself but we really should have tried one or two balls down the channels so that he could turn the centre half. He did get involved on 23 when Pritch played a nice one-two but had his low shot saved. A Preston break ended with a shot well over, as the game's energy levels dropped around the half hour mark. A spot of harrying by Hume, Neil, and Rusyn got it back up only for us to concede a corner that Ballard dealt with well. An O9 charge from the back found Pritch but he sliced his effort wise of the near post.
With 38 gone a lovely knock and spin by Rusyn saw him away - but he was pulled down and only the presence of a random defender saved the offender a red card. Yellow instead, but we couldn't make anything of Pritch's free-kick.
A couple of minutes before the break Patto took a high ball well, Clarke was away down the left and rode a foul to set up Rusyn, who popped it away nicely to have us smiling for the two added minutes.
Well worth the interval lead, we made no changes after Hoooolio did the draw, and we wondered if we'd try to get Rusyn one on one with their defender to force another foul. However, we needed clever, strong defending from Ballard to hold PNE off, and after Luke's ball down the line nearly had Pritch away there was a spell of Preston pressure as they looked a bit more urgent than us. After a comfy low save by Patto, Pembele replaced Alese with Hume going to the left.
There were fifteen to go when Ba and Jobe made way for Seelt and Mayenda, and we basically allowed an ineffective visiting side a lot of the ball. An elbow on Luke was missed, Clarke went on a fifty yard dash in the last minute to win a corner, four added minutes were announced in which Patto took a looping header, PNE fired over, and we ended the game as winners despite not having a shot on target in the second half
Man of the Man? Decent displays all over, but the spark came from Pritch so he gets it, with favourable mentions to Rusyn even if I'm unused to judging a forward, Clarke, and Neil. A decent warm up for next week - presumably we're saving the passion for then.
