Made In Preston – the blog

How many clubs have stayed with a manager when they have been at the bottom with things seeming to be getting worse in November, yet………

Yesterday PNE dropped to bottom following the home defeat to Hull and Crystal Palace winning at home. The position doesn’t look good as a clear gap is appearing but the chairman gave Darren Ferguson a vote of confidence saying he’d been hit by injuries.   It would be normal to expect the manager to be ousted in such a situation but PNE have paid off the two previous managers and are in business only because they have been bailed out by Trevor Hemmings. The wage bill is still said to be excessive and there are players on the books who should be gone. Meanwhile gates are low and likely to get lower.  To add to the difficulty it is said that Trevor Hemmings is friendly with Alec Ferguson.  Trevor Hemmings isn’t known for buying lemons and as he owns the club it doesn’t seem likely he would want to run it down or put it into administration. 

On the positive side the squad isn’t as bad as it has appeared. Some of the goals conceded have been what you might say are blatant one-off errors typical of a team that are down on their confidence. Whether Darren Ferguson can turn it round isn’t clear, whether he needs someone to give him management support might be a route the club and him might be willing to take. Although how this would work and for how long will tax everyones diplomatic,  communication and business skills in setting it up.

There is another route to let the team fight their way up or be relegated and then hope that Darren can pull something out of the fire and maybe gain more experience in League 1. This seems a risky strategy as its easier to go down than come up and what Darren did at Peterborough might not be repeated.

Looking at the table and fixtures, the game against QPR next week might be written off but PNE have surprised in such circumstances. The game in two weeks at home against Millwall might be more of a trial as losing that after a defeat at QPR would be a ‘6 pointer’ and things would be reaching a point of no return.  With all these ponderables the obvious route of changing manager might not be the best route overall so it seems that whatever path is chosen will be clear in the next couple of weeks.

On October 29th Ronnie Clayton, the famous Blackburn Rovers midfielder of the 1950’s and 60’s, died aged 76. Making his first team debut at the age of 17, playing for England at 20 and captaining England at 25 and yet continuing to work in the local newsagency he owned in Darwen.  Somehow after going to school in Preston, Fishwick, he was spotted by Blackburn and went there. In Blackburn he is revered and regarded as a gentleman with a common touch much as Tom Finney is in Preston.

North End live on BBC2 today and looking good at 3-1 in the lead. Then a bit of an incident where Burnley thought a PNE player had handled although it looked one of those unavoidable handballs.  The ref looked a bit worried that he’d missed something and moments later sent off the North End player for a totally trivial offence. Was this evening the score?  Anyway it changed the match and Burnley scored 3 goals against 10 man PNE.

To me it was a good reason not to watch football. I wonder why you should pay so much and have the result skewed on a whim.

Strangely having looked at the Evening Post website at 10.30pm  there is only a small article tucked away well down the page and not a single letter from a fan.   Am I missing something or is the LEP blacked by PNE fans.

Not the best start to the season. Scoring one goal in 4 games and playing 2 teams who are struggling.

Interesting controversy about Portsmouth being a premium game with an entrance charge of £30. PNE need to get some money in but £30 is a lot to pay.  Is football on a par with the cinema or a show.  Theatre can cost £20 outside a city but then most people don’t go to the theatre every couple of weeks.  So maybe £10 for a casual spectator to £15 for a fanatical supporter at a Championship football match seems reasonable.  Although no doubt the die-hards would want that reversing.  Maybe the charge should increase as the clubs position improves and premium games sounds a good scheme from such a base.

There are options to make a contribution to the club on the PNE website and from £35 to £48 a year there is a subscription to match highlights and live commentary with news-shots. It isn’t clear who gets how much money for this as the subscription goes to the Football League. Someone has to manage it as it would be difficult to set up as a club so it seems a reasonably priced option to contribute to PNE. 

Use it or lose it is a good adage and a football club puts a place on the map.  Blackpool are saying the advertising from this season couldn’t be bought, and is Wigan a better known place than Lancaster nowadays, certainly is. So there is value to the ratepayers for a contribution.

Nothing much to say, looks pretty bad.

The case for the defence:
It is said PNE have never done well at Swansea. 
It is said PNE players are coming back from injury. 
It is said it’s early yet.

To use the words from the film ‘High Noon’.

‘I do not know what fate awaits me I only know I must be brave’.