As for the game at Deepdale, Preston arrive into this Friday's game with QPR in decent touch after a recent run of form and victory against one of their local rivals in the game before. Josh McLoughlin, fresh from the 3-1 v Blackpool, tells us how it's all going.

How has your overall season been?

Very mixed. We started off with an incredible run of seven clean sheets. Unfortunately we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net ourselves so despite dominating games we were only coming away with a point.

The clean sheets then fell away and the home form became terrible. We were still managing some decent away results though including wins at Norwich City and Blackburn Rovers.

We lost five home league games in a row around the turn of the year and things became toxic. One more defeat at Deepdale could have seen the end of Ryan Lowe. At 1-0 down at home to Wigan Athletic I think 99% of fans were wanting the manager out and didn’t think he could turn it around.

We managed to win that game and are now in the midst of only one defeat in the last nine. Neither playoffs nor relegation have ever looked on the cards. It’s been a forgettable season in many ways but the comfortable 3-1 win over Blackpool last week was memorable and much needed too.

Preston league results so far...
Wigan 0-0 Preston
Preston 0-0 Hull
Luton 0-1 Preston Potts 18
Preston 0-0 Rotherham
Preston 0-0 Watford
Cardiff 0-0 Preston
Coventry 0-1 Preston Riis 73
Preston 0-1 Birmingham Colin 16
Preston 1-1 Burnley Storey 15 — Harwood-Bellis 10
Preston 0-2 Sheff Utd Ndiaye 14, McBurnie 75
Sunderland 0-0 Preston
Preston 1-0 West Brom Riis 7
Norwich 2-3 Preston Sargent 2, Sara 76 — Riis 25, 51, Parrott 80
Bristol City 2-1 Preston Atkinson 54, 90 — Hughes 82
Preston 0-2 Stoke Smallbone 58, Campbell 66
Huddersfield 0-1 Preston Cunningham 50
Blackpool 4-2 Preston Yates 30, 81, Patino 61, Hamilton 90 — Whiteman pen 38, Connolly og 89
Preston 2-1 Middlesbrough Riis 35, Storey 90 — Akpom 7
Preston 1-0 Swansea Potts 30
Reading 1-2 Preston Joao pen 71 — Evans 51, 79
Preston 2-4 Millwall Hughes 20, Evans 28 — Flemming 4, 16, 64, Cresswell 72
Blackburn 1-Preston 4 Dack 55 — Woodburn 16, Evans 47, 63, Whiteman 65
Preston 0-1 QPR Dunne 58
Preston 1-2 Huddersfield Cunningham 34 — Rhodes 76, Hayden 85
West Brom 2-0 Preston Yokuslu 36, 57
Stoke 0-1 Preston Evans 90
Preston 0-4 Norwich Pukki 13, 69, Dowell 16, 28
Birmingham 1-2 Preston Jutkiewicz 83 — Ledson 10, Browne 15
Preston 1-2 Bristol City Evans 61 — Sykes 6, Bell 45
Burnley 3-0 Preston Tella 15, 55, 58
Preston 1-1 Luton Parrott pen 81 — Morris 73
Hull 0-0 Preston
Preston 2-1 Wigan Johnson pen 53, Cannon 57 — Cunningham og 27
Preston 0-0 Coventry
Watford 0-0 Preston
Preston 2-0 Cardiff Cannon 68, Evans 90
Rotherham 1-2 Preston Odofin 35 — Cannon 23, Evans 45
Boro 4-0 Preston Akpom 22, Archer 52, 58, Forss 90
Preston 3-1 Blackpool Potts 12, Whiteman 26, Cannon 51 — Yates 89

When we came to yours you’d just trounced Blackburn and I thought you’d kick on, instead you lost to us, Huddersfield and went on a drift. We’re once again facing you after a big impressive derby win, but what is it that’s holding you back from doing that consistently?

A lack of quality. We’ve got some decent players but no one has consistently performed this season. We’re lacking a maverick, creative type of player. The injury to Emil Riis was a big loss because aside from Ched Evans no one has really regularly scored this season. On the whole we’ve got a committed team who haven’t let their standards drop, but in this league there are far better but also far worse teams than us.

Is Ryan Lowe doing a good job or not?

Tough question. Ask me six weeks ago and I’d say no. Last week we were briefly in ninth place which is great on our budget. It’s been a tough watch this season but we’ve never flirted with the bottom three. I think he’s doing alright on the whole. A lot of players have improved under him including Liam Lindsay and Ched Evans. Tom Cannon has also clearly improved since he arrived on loan from Everton in January.

What January business did you do and how has it gone?

Tom Cannon from Everton on loan is a real talent. It’s his first experience of senior football and he’s got better with each game. Scored three in his last four and has impressed at youth level for Republic of Ireland as well. Would love it if he returned again next season.

Liam Delap came in on loan from Manchester City. He spent the first half of the season at Stoke City scoring three for them. He’s yet to get off the mark for us and has missed at least two gilt edge chances. Has struggled to get in ahead of Cannon, Evans and Troy Parrott.

Josh Onomah joined on a free transfer from Fulham until the end of the season. A talented player but not match fit. Six appearances off the bench so far totalling 51 minutes. Hard to say whether he would get his contract extended in the summer. If it’s a good deal for the club then it may be worth it. There’s a player in there.

Summer Ins >>> Freddie Woodman, 25, GK, Newcastle, Undisclosed >>> Ben Woodburn, 22, AM, Liverpool, Free >>> Robbie Brady, 30, LW, Bournemouth, Free >>> David Cornell University, 31, GK, Peterborough, Free >>> Troy Parrott, 20, CF, Spurs, Loan >>> Alvaro Fernandez, 19, LB, Man Utd, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Sean Maguire, 28, AM, Coventry, Free >>> Adam O’Reilly, 21, CM, Derry, Undisclosed >>> Mikey O’Neil, 18, CF, Grimsby, Loan

Player of the season candidates?

Goalkeeper Freddie Woodman: 16 clean sheets so far is a great achievement. The defence have done a solid job in front of him and that has been shared success rather than any individual’s standing out.

Ched Evans has surprisingly been a huge player for us this season. We’re so much better going forward with him in the team. He provides an outlet and the ball sticks with him whether it’s holding it up or running and bundling his way through. He’s scored some really important goals too and was worthy of his contract extension, though is now likely out for the season.

Loanee Alvaro Fernandez is definitely the young player of the season. Cementing his place at left-wing-back it’s clear to see why Manchester United highly rate him. Confident going forward, a trick or two up his sleeve. A real crowd favourite.

Weak links

We’ve got a solid 20 or so players all of a similar ability. There’s no obvious weak links but we need there to be some more standout players. We’ve managed well with quite a lot of injuries this season. As things stand Ali McCann, Emil Riis, Greg Cunningham and Ched Evans are all out for the rest of the season. Whilst they are all decent players it’s not as if they have left huge holes in the squad. We have decent cover in all areas and despite not having a natural right wing-back, Brad Potts has given committed, energetic displays all season.

Where to from here, both in the remaining games, and through the summer to next season?

Pick up as many points as possible and get a win over Blackburn Rovers to hamper their promotion push.

A few more feel-good victories at Deepdale would be nice as we’ve been drip fed them this season.

Through the summer it would be great to see Cannon and Fernandez return. Would also be huge if we hold onto Freddie Woodman. Newcastle United were still laying half of his wages this season but that will end in the summer. Hopefully we don’t sell him on the cheap.

Would be great if we could sign some proper wing backs and a clinical attacker. But they’ve been on the list for some time now.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Press >>> From The Finney — Blog >>> Deepdale Digest — Blog >>> PNE Online — Forum

The Twitter @loftforwords, @Josh_McLoughlin

Pictures — Action Images

Action Images

TacticalR added 15:00 - Apr 7 Thanks to Josh. Preston seem one of those teams that always knows how to survive in this division. It sounds like the loan system from Premier League clubs is also working quite well for Preston (better than it is for us). We will have to keep an eye on loanee Tom Cannon given his form.
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