Glad we didn't end up with

[davieG]

Billy Davies as manager if the last 40 minutes of today's game reflects his philosophy in football, time wasting, cheating full of gamesmanship, no attempt to play football leaves them second only to QPR and Ian Holloway in the shit football stakes.

Nil value for money, and please don't peddle that 'well it was worth it for them as they got the points', I want to be entertained even if I lose.

Mind you not that we were showing much commitment, has Alan Maybury replaced Williams in the coundn't give a toss stakes. 4 out of 10 for him. Second half we were weren't even at the race.

Kelly must be feeling very let down.

[shen]

Billy Davies as manager if the last 40 minutes of today's game reflects his philosophy in football, time wasting, cheating full of gamesmanship, no attempt to play football leaves them second only to QPR and Ian Holloway in the shit football stakes.

Nil value for money, and please don't peddle that 'well it was worth it for them as they got the points', I want to be entertained even if I lose.

Mind you not that we were showing much commitment, has Alan Maybury replaced Williams in the coundn't give a toss stakes. 4 out of 10 for him. Second half we were weren't even at the race.

Kelly must be feeling very let down.

Must be depressed now that his beloved mentor Craig has left...

[Ultra]

Preston were dour, effective and professional this afternoon.

Just like we were under Adams, Little and even MON in our last three promotion seasons.

Whatever you may think of their tactics this afternoon, their win was nothing more than they deserved.

Billy Davies knows how to succeed in this league. I'm not sure Rob Kelly does.

I'm not going to brand RK "Levein Mark 2" (at least not until Monday). But it is clear from the second-half display that a lot of the bad habits from earlier in the season haven't entirely gone away.

Those on the Kop and elsewhere who applauded the team off today should be ashamed of themselves.

When the visitors' winner comes from yet ANOTHER badly-defended set piece questions have to be asked of how we prepared for this game, especially when they knew McCarthy would be missing.

If these errors are not corrected, we could be in for another relegation battle next season.

The present squad doesn't have the depth or physical presence to compete successfully over a 46-match season.

[DaveyJ]

Preston were dour, effective and professional this afternoon.

Just like we were under Adams, Little and even MON in our last three promotion seasons.

Whatever you may think of their tactics this afternoon, their win was nothing more than they deserved.

Billy Davies knows how to succeed in this league. I'm not sure Rob Kelly does.

I'm not going to brand RK "Levein Mark 2" (at least not until Monday). But it is clear from the second-half display that a lot of the bad habits from earlier in the season haven't entirely gone away.

Those on the Kop and elsewhere who applauded the team off today should be ashamed of themselves.

When the visitors' winner comes from yet ANOTHER badly-defended set piece questions have to be asked of how we prepared for this game, especially when they knew McCarthy would be missing.

If these errors are not corrected, we could be in for another relegation battle next season.

The present squad doesn't have the depth or physical presence to compete successfully over a 46-match season.

That's a tad unfair. Although I thought Welsh was our worst player today (tacticaly I don't think he has a clue), Kelly has pretty much the same squad as Levien. We can't really criticise him yet for not completely removing CL's influence.

[Thracian]

Billy Davies as manager if the last 40 minutes of today's game reflects his philosophy in football, time wasting, cheating full of gamesmanship, no attempt to play football leaves them second only to QPR and Ian Holloway in the shit football stakes.

Nil value for money, and please don't peddle that 'well it was worth it for them as they got the points', I want to be entertained even if I lose.

Mind you not that we were showing much commitment, has Alan Maybury replaced Williams in the coundn't give a toss stakes. 4 out of 10 for him. Second half we were weren't even at the race.

Kelly must be feeling very let down.

Funnily enough I've just referred to that in my report. I don't think I have ever seen such extended and blatant timewasting and, predictably, Gallagher did nothing about either stopping it or adding sufficient time on. It was a disgrace and I would have said the same if it were City's approach.

[Ultra]

Unpleasant though Preston's tactics were, let's not allow them to distract us from the real issue.

They know how to defend a lead and we don't, simple as.

This is a failing which our manager really needs to sort out.

[Thracian]

Preston were dour, effective and professional this afternoon.

Just like we were under Adams, Little and even MON in our last three promotion seasons.

Whatever you may think of their tactics this afternoon, their win was nothing more than they deserved.

Billy Davies knows how to succeed in this league. I'm not sure Rob Kelly does.

I'm not going to brand RK "Levein Mark 2" (at least not until Monday). But it is clear from the second-half display that a lot of the bad habits from earlier in the season haven't entirely gone away.

Those on the Kop and elsewhere who applauded the team off today should be ashamed of themselves.

When the visitors' winner comes from yet ANOTHER badly-defended set piece questions have to be asked of how we prepared for this game, especially when they knew McCarthy would be missing.

If these errors are not corrected, we could be in for another relegation battle next season.

The present squad doesn't have the depth or physical presence to compete successfully over a 46-match season.

Now, now Ultra. Don't go criticising Rob Kelly. There are people on here who will be very upset if you start doing things like that. And correcting things?. Don't you know our record over the last few months? What's to correct!!!!.

[Ultra]

Now, now Ultra. Don't go criticising Rob Kelly. There are people on here who will be very upset if you start doing things like that

Yeah, and they're probably the same folks who were telling us last season that Craig Levein was the best coach in Europe and that we were incredibly lucky to have him on our payroll...

Although his honeymoon isn't quite over, eyes might to start to stray if we have another bad performance and result at the sky blues..

[martyn]

The guy has had the job for what 15 games, taking a side in freefall to safety with consumate ease. Levein Mark 2 indeed.

Does RK even have a proper coaching setup to start improving these things yet? It's like some people expect a magic wand to be waved to disperse all our problems under CL and it's ****ing ridiculous. LOOK AT THE POSITION WE WERE IN.

The set-pieces obviously need to be sorted out but what more can be done than to promote a man marking system and tell the players to make a challenge. It's them who need to take the responsibility.

Oh and Kelly out.

[DaveyJ]

The guy has had the job for what 15 games, taking a side in freefall to safety with consumate ease. Levein Mark 2 indeed.

Does RK even have a proper coaching setup to start improving these things yet? It's like some people expect a magic wand to be waved to disperse all our problems under CL and it's ****ing ridiculous. LOOK AT THE POSITION WE WERE IN.

The set-pieces obviously need to be sorted out but what more can be done than to promote a man marking system and tell the players to make a challenge. It's them who need to take the responsibility.

Oh and Kelly out.

Well said

It just seems ridiculuous to make decisive statements about RK until he's had the summer to create the squad he wants (with the few resources he'll have). It's stupid to say he's the best thing since sliced bread, but equally stupid to say (from one poor performance) that he is CL II.

[Tevez]

are yousatisfied? i think he is a good coach and going to be a better one wherever his career in being a manager goes. 1 shit performance and some people are slagging him off.

Rob Kellys Blue and White Army

[Thracian]

That's a tad unfair. Although I thought Welsh was our worst player today (tacticaly I don't think he has a clue), Kelly has pretty much the same squad as Levien. We can't really criticise him yet for not completely removing CL's influence.

Preston had a team of lumbering steamrollers and what did we do? We played narrow until the last 20 minutes and it resulted in long spells of head tennis which we weren't big enough or strong enough to win.

The way to combat such a big physical side was demonstrated at the Spanish Armada. You get our little players to go around them. You spread their players out and go through the gaps between them, preferably quickly.

Welsh wasn't used as a winger (as against Hull) he was deployed as a supplementary midfielder and was clearly smothered and stiffled until Kelly sent him wide. If you want four in midfield play midfielders. Let wingers do their own job. The only player in the club who I've seen play genuinely as a winger and in midfield is Levi Porter.

Only when O'Grady came on and we played three up front and employed Welsh in a defence-stretching wide role did gaps open up and one or two flowing moves almost conjure an equaliser. The move where O'Grady and Hume both used successive backheels to put Fryatt in was brilliant and might have produced another goal of the year contestant..

[Royston.]

Second half was very Craig Levein. Not once did I envisage us scoring.

[Cobbo]

Bag of shit like.

[Syko]

Bloody hell people we only lost a game we'll win on monday and he'll be great again lets just go oh well we lost to 5th in the league we were bound to lose at some point and we'll bounce back just like ipswich and Norwich

[Cobbo]

Bloody hell people we only lost a game we'll win on monday and he'll be great again lets just go oh well we lost to 5th in the league we were bound to lose at some point and we'll bounce back just like ipswich and Norwich

I was just knocking our opponants

[Leicester_Mad]

:: if we could perform consistently and win every week we wouldnt be in the bottom half of the **** table. We lost, we are going to lose at some point, get over it....

[Jimmy]

poor performance yes, but it was almost vound to happen when he was given the job perminantly, especially with paddy mac out, monday i'd bring stearman in for maybury and o'grady in for hughes go 4-3-3 and stretch MA's retirement home team all over the park

[Louise]

Didn't see too much cheating and time wasting from Preston... I mean other than the usual amount. They seemed very on edge towards the end, hence the number of bookings. But other than that slow jog for the sub I wasn't too bothered.

I did smile to myself listening to Kelly coming back on the radio, as his interview was very much like some of the interviews Levein gave after defeats and was slaughtered for (not by me), saying we played well when we didn't, saying we had this many chances compared to the number that they had etc.

I wouldn't blame Kelly for the performance today though, he did the same as he's always done and what he got appointed for doing, there is no point in complaining now! The first half was fairly competitive, and you could say that the two goals coming when they did would have shaken any team after being 1-0 up, even in mid-season with something to play for. However the response from the players afterwards was pretty spineless (with certain omissions of course, Johansson and Fryatt did particularly well all game) and reflected the 'end of season' feel that we were promised wouldn't come into the game. That is concerning, but only really worrying if it continues into the next three games - this could just be a blip due to a lapse of concentration and Preston wanting it more - hopefully the players will have been given another kick up the backside today and will realise what they have to do for the rest of the season.

While Kelly doesn't like to change sides, I personally feel now that we really need to give some of the fringe, young and (yes) even Tiatto a go in the side. They at least will have something to play for*. Kelly had the best of intentions in sticking with the 'main' team, but I feel like they’ve run out of petrol now and it's time for us to see some eagerness at the end of the season, and not just a slow petering out of all Kelly's good work.

* I don’t mean a complete change. Keep Henderson, Kisnorbo, McCarthy (when back), Gudjonsson, Williams, Fryatt and Hume (ie the spine) and have the rest of the spots up for grabs.

[Original_Champions]

Good Morning,

I am writing as a Preston fan and so what I say may not be welcome.

I am going to give an honest account of my team. Many of you have commented upon the Preston style of 'time wasting and poor tactics', well I am not going to deny that at times we do implement a professional, if somewhat unattractive, approach in some games on our travels. I have noticed on a few occasions that when our team score the management team will put across the message to calm down and focus and slow the game down - similar to a martial artist who after throwing himself into a full contact sparring session would then slow down his heart to remain total focus and keep a clear head to see the job through.

We do milk things a little and we celebrate goals as a team, which is psychologically important because it shows a strong togetherness and it also slows down a counter response from the opposition who wish to get back into the game instantly. It has also been noticed that once our players are substituted they always seem to be at the far end of the pitch and take their time leaving the pitch; again this is another professional way to take the heat out of the game. These are all the characteristics that Ned Kelly has brought to the football club and admittedly they are characteristics that I don't particularly like, although they are the sort of tactics that successful teams all use. Look at Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal - they all get in a huddle after scoring a goal and take ages to get back into position and they don't run off, at a great pace, once substituted. Maybe these are characteristics of the modern game, along with diving, handballs and whatever else is flavour of the month, that are implemented to gain the edge?

To even this out, Preston are renowned for playing good football and I have lost count how many opposition fans have said we are the best team they have faced this season and only last week a Norwich fan stated this:

Taken from Pinkun.com

"For what its worth, Preston have been by far the most impressive team that I've seen at Carrow Road this year. It didn’t help that virtually all of players didn’t turn up that day but Preston had clearly sussed out our weaknesses and came with a clear game plan and executed it perfectly. We were lucky to get away with just conceding 3.Of the 4 teams in the play offs, I certainly hope PNE win through."

We are struggling at the moment with numbers because half of our first team is out injured and many are long term casualties and maybe we are using one or two ugly aspects of the game to help us maximize our results, however if you believe for one second that Leicester play beautiful pure football without fault, then you are all very misled, as is any fan out there of any team in England. It isn't cheating what we do, it is more a case of using heavily based psychological mind techniques and if that helps us gain the edge over these clubs who have dropped out of the Premiership, with parachute payments of multi million pounds and the ability to attract the higher class players because of the unfair advantage of extra financial power then so be it!

We are professional, focused, hardworking, motivated, ambitious and above all we are 5th on a very limited budget and we wouldn't swap Billy Davies for Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson or Lex Luther.

We are respected by many opposition managers and fans alike and only recently Mike Newell said "Preston are only second to Reading within this league." - Maybe not in points, however it just shows what we have achieved this season and I truly hope that continues.

Good luck for the rest of the season and the rebuilding process that Mr.Kelly is beginning.

[Parsons]

we will be the Preston of next season

but hopefully we wont be using your 'professional' tactics

[Babylon]

I'm not sure Rob Kelly does.

Because our results have been so terrible under him.

FFS. You may as well start chanting for his head not along with the other morons who don't give a manager more than 5 minutes.

[Babylon]

Now, now Ultra. Don't go criticising Rob Kelly. There are people on here who will be very upset if you start doing things like that. And correcting things?. Don't you know our record over the last few months? What's to correct!!!!.

People have no problem with others critisising Thracian. We all know about the problems at set pieces and the midfield isn't strong enough.

What gets up people noses are comments like "not sure Rob Kelly knows what it takes to succeed in this division". Well nobody on here knows for sure, but lets look at the facts and they are the number of points we have picked up under him. That says to me he is doing something correct.

Preston along with ourselves were the form team in the league, so for people to be ready to lable him Levein mk II (once again) it's going to piss people off.

The other thing that gets up peoples noses about critisisms is certain posters thinking they have to tell us over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!!!! Until it gets to the point where people are just telling them to stop moaning, they then think that you aren't allowed to critisise any more.

[C-man]

Preston were dour, effective and professional this afternoon.

Just like we were under Adams, Little and even MON in our last three promotion seasons.

Whatever you may think of their tactics this afternoon, their win was nothing more than they deserved.

Billy Davies knows how to succeed in this league. I'm not sure Rob Kelly does.

I'm not going to brand RK "Levein Mark 2" (at least not until Monday). But it is clear from the second-half display that a lot of the bad habits from earlier in the season haven't entirely gone away.

Those on the Kop and elsewhere who applauded the team off today should be ashamed of themselves.

When the visitors' winner comes from yet ANOTHER badly-defended set piece questions have to be asked of how we prepared for this game, especially when they knew McCarthy would be missing.

If these errors are not corrected, we could be in for another relegation battle next season.

The present squad doesn't have the depth or physical presence to compete successfully over a 46-match season.

1. Kelly has been in charge of 15 games, maybe not even that. We have left the relegation zone and are now safe. I think thats considerable success in the time that he has achieved that, and especially looking at the good teams we've played. When he took over, i thought we were doomed. We're not.

2. Why should they be ashamed? We lost, but we can still applaud them if we want to. I'm not going to stop applauding my team just because someone says so. Its not like we lost to a team like Brighton at home, then we could Boo. Like the Preston fan just said, several teams have commented on how good they are. And they are an extremely 'proffesional' and 'well organised' outfit.

3. The set pieces arguement is a difficult thing to answer for. Except that our team is very small in stature and we have no height at all. For their goal yesterday, we had Kisnorbo and Gerrbrand marking their two big centre halfs, Johansson marking Ageymang, leaving no other tall players to mark Jarrett who nodded in the flick on. All i'm saying is we have no height, which will be a big problem at both ends of the pitch, and is effectively why we are leaking goals and not scoring any from set pieces.

Yeah, and they're probably the same folks who were telling us last season that Craig Levein was the best coach in Europe and that we were incredibly lucky to have him on our payroll...

Although his honeymoon isn't quite over, eyes might to start to stray if we have another bad performance and result at the sky blues..

Are you mad? 2 losses in a row is not going to cause some fans to chant 'Kelly Out', after what he's already achieved, unless they are seriously deluded.

[Leicester Lass]

1. Kelly has been in charge of 15 games, maybe not even that. We have left the relegation zone and are now safe. I think thats considerable success in the time that he has achieved that, and especially looking at the good teams we've played. When he took over, i thought we were doomed. We're not.

2. Why should they be ashamed? We lost, but we can still applaud them if we want to. I'm not going to stop applauding my team just because someone says so. Its not like we lost to a team like Brighton at home, then we could Boo. Like the Preston fan just said, several teams have commented on how good they are. And they are an extremely 'proffesional' and 'well organised' outfit.

3. The set pieces arguement is a difficult thing to answer for. Except that our team is very small in stature and we have no height at all. For their goal yesterday, we had Kisnorbo and Gerrbrand marking their two big centre halfs, Johansson marking Ageymang, leaving no other tall players to mark Jarrett who nodded in the flick on. All i'm saying is we have no height, which will be a big problem at both ends of the pitch, and is effectively why we are leaking goals and not scoring any from set pieces.

Are you mad? 2 losses in a row is not going to cause some fans to chant 'Kelly Out', after what he's already achieved, unless they are seriously deluded.

Well said that man