Back from the game - Preston

[Rex]

Well,well, well, what happened there last night. Kebe actually played very decent football, stayed on his feet and rarely put a foot wrong.
Slicing through midfield with two PNE players chomping at him he kept his composure and slotted an identical shot on goal into the goalkeepers lower left hand corner. A truly heart in mouth moment where i thought Kebe would screw up. This time he played simple direct football and didn't think about taking on the keeper.

The two goals came about due to cutting their midfield in half and a result of PNE pushing up too high. Church and his 1 on 1 was a far easier take than Kebe but so glad we hit them fast in the first half. This time though it was more composed, more considered and less of a panic.

The second half though was a different matter. We was back far too much and we should not invite the pressure. The team are too fragile to sustain that kind of pressure. Penalty and it could very much have been our undoing.

Fedders despite all those knocking him as a shit GK played a class game last night and made at least two one handed class, class saves to get us the three points. The relief from the team and the support was palpable at the end, so much so the whole team and coaching staff went into a huddle and them applauded us idiots who thought a dead cert loss was on the cards.

Not the resounding and convincing display just yet but there were glimmers of hope on display last night. We have seen this before though.

[Royal Rother]

Quick comment, and not having a pop at anyone here, but re "if it hadn't been for Federici" type comments - over the last few months several oppo 'keepers have had fantastic games against us that have denied us points - indeed, if the Great Dane hadn't played out of his skin for Burnley in 4 games against us last season in all probability we would be in the Prem and not them / Brum....

[Ryn]

I'm personally of the opinion that a goalkeeper should hardly have a save to make all game, if the defence are doing their job properly. We are lucky that Afed is a good shot stopper, but the rest of his game still needs a bit of work.

The fact that he did keep us in the game alludes to the fact that there is more work to be done by the team, before we can be comfortable that we are keeping it tight and actually moving up the table.

That said, all credit to the lads. They fought hard for 60 minutes and deserve the 3 points. I am pleased that they had the grit and determination to hang on, something that has been missing in recent games.

I also think it's telling that as soon as we have two proper wingers on the pitch, we start to look threatening again. I would like to see us be able to push hard for the whole 90 minutes with some proper width, pull the opposition's defence apart, and hammer some balls into the box. Maybe we can tug in another winger in the January sales.

Hopefully Rodgers can learn from this game, and build on it for Saturday.

Finally, high five to Jimmy Kebe, let's have a repeat performance this weekend!

[Rex]

The fact that he did keep us in the game alludes to the fact that there is more work to be done by the team, before we can be comfortable that we are keeping it tight and actually moving up the table.


Correct Ryn. Trying to absorb that kind of pressure was always going to end in conceeding a goal. For PNe to not come away with a point was just a combination of good fortune and Fedders on top of his game.

[Franchise FC]

Preston fans don;t rate us at all lol

http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44117

You must point out for me where the Preston fans don't rate us.

All they say is that we were organised and efficient
The worst they describe us as is average.

[BarryWhiteRFC]

The fact that he did keep us in the game alludes to the fact that there is more work to be done by the team, before we can be comfortable that we are keeping it tight and actually moving up the table.


Correct Ryn. Trying to absorb that kind of pressure was always going to end in conceeding a goal. For PNe to not come away with a point was just a combination of good fortune and Fedders on top of his game.

Despite what the Preston fans and some Reading fans said, I don't think Preston deserved anything from the match, they didn't really put any pressure on us until the 65th min, and didn't really make a good opening until about the 75th min. You can't and won't win football matches playing 20 minutes decent football against any side, and I still think us losing our shape was more to blame than then playing well. We kept giving them the space they needed to come and put pressure on us. We needed to take church off earlier as he was knackered after chasing everything. If we'd have beought N. Hunt on in the 70th(ish) min, I don't think we'd have conceeded as we'd have had a fresh, pacier, stronger centre forward on who'd be able to relieve more pressure than Church could in the last 15 mins before he came off.

I couldn't believe how long it took Rodgers to take him off tbh, if we'd have drawn / lost this match, that is what I'd have blamed it on.

[Royal Rother]

Correct Ryn. Trying to absorb that kind of pressure was always going to end in conceeding a goal. For PNe to not come away with a point was just a combination of good fortune and Fedders on top of his game.

I don't quite get that. A 'keeper is a member of the team with a job to do. Feds did his job well yesterday and helped the team win 3 points.

If Kebe hadn't had what seems to have been his best game for us we might not have won - would be an equally irrelevant comment.

It's a team game, levels of individual performances will ebb and flow over the course of the season so I don't think we should ever say "if it hadn't been for X we might not have won".

[Royal Rother]

I couldn't believe how long it took Rodgers to take him off tbh, if we'd have drawn / lost this match, that is what I'd have blamed it on.

Bizarre comment. The blame culture lives even in hypothesy.

If Church hadn't played and we hadn't won would you have blamed it on the fact that Rodgers had got his team selection wrong?

[Ryn]

Correct Ryn. Trying to absorb that kind of pressure was always going to end in conceeding a goal. For PNe to not come away with a point was just a combination of good fortune and Fedders on top of his game.

Seen it so many times over the last 20 years mate. As soon as you take your foot off the gas and sit back to try to defend a lead, you give them more of the ball and more space to play it around.

The best way to avoid conceding a goal is to retain possession, play the ball around them and get it down their end. Hit them on the counter when they are pushing for an equaliser. Punish them for sending all their players up for a corner in the 93rd minute. Bring on a fast striker with 5 minutes left, to torment their defence and stop them feeding the ball forward easily.

We have to get this ruthless streak into us or there will be plenty more games like Posh/Watford and even PNE to an extent where we look like throwing away a solid first half display.

[Royalwaster]

Quote from Preston site:
"Remember Kebe from last year. He murdered us but we scagged a win. One can only imagine that some of the time he can't be arsed, otherwise he would have followed several of his teammates into the Prem."

So true, so true.

[RoyalBlue]

With all the fans who slate Kebe from the stands, its no wonder he plays better away from home!

Perhaps surprisingly, and only speaking from where I sit in the East Stand, Kebe doesn't get a lot of stick from the fans. The likes of Oster used to get far, far, more. Eeven Marek seems to get more on the occasions when he is on the pitch.

So Kebe deservedly gets 9 for last nights performance. However, take his average mark since the time he joined us and I think most people would say he still needs to improve that by quite some way before he could be viewed as having earned the right to be a first choice on the team sheet of a team that aspires to be near the top of The Championship.

Preston fans don;t rate us at all lol

http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44117

You must point out for me where the Preston fans don't rate us.
.

OK. If you need help with the eye sight look at the post by pne4eva2003.

[ONLY 1 ROBIN FRIDAY]

Apols! Missed ingi on the original post! D'oh!!! Typing on phone not clever! Kebe was outstanding tonight - PNE supporting friend agreed he was MOM. One swallow doesn't make a summer I guess!!

I agree Kebe was Man of Match ...... if only could show that form every game

[Stranded]

Apols! Missed ingi on the original post! D'oh!!! Typing on phone not clever! Kebe was outstanding tonight - PNE supporting friend agreed he was MOM. One swallow doesn't make a summer I guess!!

I agree Kebe was Man of Match ...... if only could show that form every game

...he wouldn't be playing for Reading...

[BarryWhiteRFC]

I couldn't believe how long it took Rodgers to take him off tbh, if we'd have drawn / lost this match, that is what I'd have blamed it on.

Bizarre comment. The blame culture lives even in hypothesy.

If Church hadn't played and we hadn't won would you have blamed it on the fact that Rodgers had got his team selection wrong?

No. I'm not saying he shouldn't have selected / started with him. Just that everyone could see Church could no longer run / hold the ball up / cause defenders a problem, therefore we needed a change to help relieve the pressure from the defence. I'm not slating Church. So if we'd have drawn or lost, I'd have blamed Rodgers for not seeing an obvious problem and addressing it before it became an issue. Just my opinion, obviously.

[towserSL2crew]

Well done lads, Kebe was excellent as was Karacan.They all did well and the only little error was ( I thought) taking Jobi off and replacing him with a centre half.It left us open on the left side and that was when they came back at us . Apart from that great night , keep it going against the Smoggies on Sat, and well sung ALL of us who turned out last night.

[ZacNaloen]

Well done lads, Kebe was excellent as was Karacan.They all did well and the only little error was ( I thought) taking Jobi off and replacing him with a centre half.It left us open on the left side and that was when they came back at us . Apart from that great night , keep it going against the Smoggies on Sat, and well sung ALL of us who turned out last night.

Jobi still needs protecting, he's a quality player but there is no way he can be completely fit to play 90 minutes at the moment. Still needs another couple of games to get up to full fitness.

[Focher]

Anyone who says they are worried by the fact that if it was not for Federici last night we would not have got 3 points needs shooting. His performance is as encouraging as Kebe's, just at 2 opposite ends of the field, thats what he is employed to do. The retardation of some people's comments no longer fail to amaze me.

[johnnym]

yet again, the Championship is proving to be very competitive...only 6 points between RFC and 6th place

agreed that a win doesn't mean we're suddenly promotion material again but i think it does go to show that we're not quite in as much shite as some would have us believe

[CMRoyal]

Preston fans don;t rate us at all lol

http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44117

The only thing that irritates me about the comments is the assertion that the result was one of the evening's "strange results" - and one newspaper even called it a shock! Have we fallen that far that a win, any win, against Preston is considered this much of a surprise? It was against the odds for sure, but as Barnsley, Leicester, Blackpool and others are proving there's a thin line between playoff potential and relegation candidature in this division.

[londinium]

Anyone who says they are worried by the fact that if it was not for Federici last night we would not have got 3 points needs shooting. His performance is as encouraging as Kebe's, just at 2 opposite ends of the field, thats what he is employed to do. The retardation of some people's comments no longer fail to amaze me.

You have to remember that people on here are a little bit simple.

If it wasn't for Bryn and Karajan putting balls through to Church and Kebe then we would have lost the match

If it wasn't for the midfield breaking down Preston attacks they would have had loads of shots on goal and won ther match.

If it wasn't for defenders defending well then Preston would have won

If Kebe anbd Church didnt score then Preston would have won.



Players are paid to do their job and as a whole the team did its job, yes some were better than others but Fedders job is to save shots and he 'did his job'.