A Game Of Two Halves – PNE 3-2 Forest

The away form is now becoming a problem for Billy Davies and his high flying young Reds’, as they suffered their 5th straight defeat away from Fortress City Ground, by losing 3-2 at Deepdale.

Forest put in a horror show performance during the first 45 minutes of this game and were 3-0 down after just half an hour. Defensively inept and lacking any real battling qualities in midfield, Forest were systematically pulled apart by a Preston side, who were quite simply more up for it than the Reds’.

Reds’ boss Billy Davies, said in his post match comments, that he could see during the warm up that the attitude of his players was all wrong. He knew the Deepdale crowd and players would be wanting to get one over their former boss and he was right. Just a shame that message never got through to the players wearing the Garibaldi. The 3-0 scoreline at half time was little more than they deserved for a shambolic display.

Credit should be given to the lads though, for a much more spirited performance in the second half. The manager deserves a slice of the credit as well, for making the changes needed to give us a glimmer of hope. McGugan was taken off at the break and replaced by defender Luke Chambers. This freed up Cohen to move into midfield and gave us some bite where we previously had none.

Fair play to the lads for at least making a fist of it in the second half and giving the travelling fans something to cheer. A penalty from Blackstock and goal from Earnshaw, was enough to put the willies up the Lilywhites and make them realise they had a game to play. It may have been too little too late, but at least there were some positives to take from an otherwise miserable day out for the fans.

Despite our woeful away form, the lads are still in with a shout of claiming an automatic place. We’re hanging on to the shirt tails of WBA, with them now 5 points infront. That deficit is not insurmountable, but it does mean we have to win at Barnsley on Tuesday night, to keep those hopes alive.

Teams:

Preston North End: Lonergan, Davidson(C), Mawene(Chilvers 41min), Sedgwick(Treacy 82min), Brown, St. Ledger, Coutts, Jones, James, Wallace, Mellor(Chaplow 80min)
Subs not used: Henderson, Hart, Carter, Mayor
Scorers: Wallace 20min, Davidson pen 29min, James 32min
Bookings: St Ledger 52min, Wallace 61min, Davidson 66min, Chaplow 89min.

Nottingham Forest: Camp(C), Morgan, Wilson, Gunter, Cohen, Anderson(Adebola 80min), Boyd(Earnshaw 69min), Moussi, McGugan(Chambers 45minHT), McGoldrick, Blackstock
Subs not used: Smith, Majewski, Garner,Tyson,
Bookings: Blackstock 85min, Morgan 89min, Wilson 90min
Scorer: Blackstock pen 56min, Earnshaw 76min.

Referee: M Haywood
Attendance: 14,426