S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | PNE 2 Swansea City 1 | Att: 15,911 | 05/11/25 | The EFL Championship | Deepdale

[monmouth]

Loves a point, that guy. He really looks like he can't be arsed and would rather be anywhere else

I think we’d all rather he was anywhere else.

 

[tardylum]

Shots​

Preston North End 4
Swansea City 18

XG

Preston 0.71
Swansea 0.69

So despite having only 4 shots, one being the goal from 30-35 yards, they still beat us on the XG. I am no statto but there must be something in us always having low XG.

 

[Copamundial]

That's fine pal. Enjoy the rest of your Dark Fruits.

Oh shut up you elitist dick , dark fruit comment says it all about you.

 

[Pentyrchjack]

Does anybody believe that Preston have better players than us (4th) or Charlton for that matter (6th) or Millwall or Bristol or Hull come on ffs.
We have a rookie manager who got the traditional bounce last season that’s the main reason we are where we are.

I think that many of our players are as good if not better. It's just that some players are much worse than the opposition (Cullen, Key, Idah, Benson, Fulton, Ron)

 

[JackFish]

We played pretty well overall on Saturday and tonight against two teams currently in the top 6. Goals and chances created definitely need improvement still but we look like a fairly uninspiring lower mid table team to me.

People have their expectations up because of the window and while the players we’ve brought in have been decent enough I have to agree that there’s been little evidence that there’s a top championship team there.

 

[eteb]

We played pretty well overall on Saturday and tonight against two teams currently in the top 6. Goals and chances created definitely need improvement still but we look like a fairly uninspiring lower mid table team to me.

People have their expectations up because of the window and while the players we’ve brought in have been decent enough I have to agree that there’s been little evidence that there’s a top championship team there.

This team is nowhere near as bad as the attacking stat (or lack of) make out. That is entirely down the manager and coaching staff, as evidenced by the fact that it's been dogshit since pre season.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

On paper at least, calling this team "average" is a massive disservice. It seems more apparent when we have seen glimpses of their potential on the pitch in previous games.

I believe it's their utilization to blame. The manager's responsibility.

If Sheehan wants to be considered a serious manager he needs to get back to basics. Go with the strengths of the squad and focus on quick ball and counter-attacking -- some of our weakest areas. However, at this point there are more things broken than can be improved on and so this 'back to basics' may come too late for Sheehan.

Nothing will change unless something changes.

For me, the difference between a decent player and a very good or great player is consistency. Most players at championship level can produce glimpses of excellence. The very good players produce it more frequently. The truly great produce it all of the time.
That’s not coaching. It’s ability.

And please don’t assume that I think Sheehan is the solution as I don’t.

When you have a team of fairly average players as I believe we largely have (some a bit better, some a bit worse) , it is possible to coach them to be a much better team than individual ability would suggest. Sheehan won’t do that.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

That was a frustrating watch. We played well enough to get something from a tough away game. Fortune favoured Preston tonight, that's for sure.

I've got no time for the hysterical sack the manager brigade after that. Save that for another day.

They just want him gone. None of them have really got a coherent, well constructed argument as to why, they just point at the table and want him gone, and secretly they want a process manager in like Hellberg, who will coach our amazing new Premier League level players back to the Martin glory days of 70% possession with 1 shot on target and losing 4-1. The Swansea Way etc.

Then, it'll be "why do we keep giving goals away passing it out from the back? At least this never happened under Sheehan", "it's all sideways and backwards, boring", "Hellberg out" and we go and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat.

 

[eteb]

some of these posts do my head in at times. Everything is so black and white. Why is it that someone saying this squad is better than the table suggests means we think we should be gunning for promotion?

Nobody has said that. This squad is infinitely better than 17th for fuck sake. We create 1 or two chances a game (today the exception). Even the worst champ sides of recent years do far better than that.

 

[Jack2jack]

It amazes me how we think we can rock up week after week and just roll teams over. Let's have it right we are not far off getting some wins on the board.
If we finish mid table so bloody what.
And another thing I'm fed up of this managerial merry go round of the last few years. Anyhow, see ya all layers. Nos dda.

 

[eteb]

They just want him gone. None of them have really got a coherent, well constructed argument as to why, they just point at the table and want him gone, and secretly they want a process manager in like Hellberg, who will coach our amazing new Premier League level players back to the Martin glory days of 70% possession with 1 shot on target and losing 4-1. The Swansea Way etc.

Then, it'll be "why do we keep giving goals away passing it out from the back? At least this never happened under Sheehan", "it's all sideways and backwards, boring", "Hellberg out" and we go and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat.

Yes because you're so much cleverer than all of us And, we'll all bow down to your superior footballing knowledge safe in the knowledge that you are thrilled with less than a goal a game in average.

 

[Flash]

I do think we have got a lot of good championship players in the squad. But we’ve got nearly half a new squad. Most of which don’t have championship experience. It takes time individually to get used to the league and collectively to work as a team. And that takes a lot longer than 3 months to happen.

 

[Copamundial]

For me, the difference between a decent player and a very good or great player is consistency. Most players at championship level can produce glimpses of excellence. The very good players produce it more frequently. The truly great produce it all of the time.
That’s not coaching. It’s ability.

And please don’t assume that I think Sheehan is the solution as I don’t.

When you have a team of fairly average players as I believe we largely have (some a bit better, some a bit worse) , it is possible to coach them to be a much better team than individual ability would suggest. Sheehan won’t do that.

This league is full of teams with average players that’s why they’re playing in the Championship, the problem here is the manager, like I said earlier there are teams above us who no way have players that are that much better than ours.

 

[WentToSchoolWith]

some of these posts do my head in at times. Everything is so black and white. Why is it that someone saying this squad is better than the table suggests means we think we should be gunning for promotion?

Nobody has said that. This squad is infinitely better than 17th for fuck sake. We create 1 or two chances a game (today the exception). Even the worst champ sides of recent years do far better than that.

You can be a dickhead, but I completely agree with this comment

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

Does anyone have any idea as to why we’ve taken a man out midfield to accommodate an additional rookie CB when our defence was settled and pretty good already? I can understand it for Man C, but our weakness in the league hasn’t been at the back.