Preston Irish and Opposition Irish

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Great result for Preston in the Sheffield Wednesday game.

They can reduce the gap to 3 points with victory at home to Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

Boyle, Cunningham, Horgan and McGeady start with Browne named on the bench.

[DeLorean]

McGeady has just equalised for them.

[TrapAPony]

Horgan and Boyle were substituted at half time

[liamoo11]

Horgan and Boyle were substituted at half time

Mcgeady must have been playing ****e though

[Fixer82]

https://youtu.be/oMfInUFBWzk

McGeady's goal

[DeLorean]

Mcgeady must have been playing ****e though

Seems that way -

"We were a little frustrated with Aiden before he scored,” Preston boss Simon Grayson revealed. “He had a couple of opportunities to shoot and he didn’t take them, so we got the message on for him to get the shot off and it was nice for him to score. That’s what he can do, and why he has been so important for us.”


Horgan and Boyle were substituted at half time

Tactical according to Grayson -

"We looked at the system at half-time and felt we needed to change it around. We went to the 3-4-1-2 and that was no reflection on Andy Boyle and Daryl Horgan, who have had a fantastic week playing for Ireland, but we felt we had to get more pace into the team.”



http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/how-the-irish-fared-aiden-mcgeady-stays-on-goal-trail-as-preston-rescue-valuable-point-446823.html

[liamoo11]

Seems that way -

"We were a little frustrated with Aiden before he scored,” Preston boss Simon Grayson revealed. “He had a couple of opportunities to shoot and he didn’t take them, so we got the message on for him to get the shot off and it was nice for him to score. That’s what he can do, and why he has been so important for us.”



Tactical according to Grayson -

"We looked at the system at half-time and felt we needed to change it around. We went to the 3-4-1-2 and that was no reflection on Andy Boyle and Daryl Horgan, who have had a fantastic week playing for Ireland, but we felt we had to get more pace into the team.”



http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/how-the-irish-fared-aiden-mcgeady-stays-on-goal-trail-as-preston-rescue-valuable-point-446823.html

Sure I know he's pure ****e and then the lads playing great ball have to be subbed off because mcgeady is so ****e.

[paul_oshea]

Ya i noticed Delores got the wrong end of the stick there

[DeLorean]

Not really. The sarcasm was clear, but as it turned out it seems he wasn't having a very game before he scored.

[DeLorean]

A friend is at Preston v Bristol City tonight. Unfortunately for him only Cunningham and McGeady are starting from the Irish contingent, and O'Dowda for Bristol City. McGeady turned 31 today.

[SkStu]

peno for McGeady

[SkStu]

A friend is at Preston v Bristol City tonight. Unfortunately for him only Cunningham and McGeady are starting from the Irish contingent, and O'Dowda for Bristol City. McGeady turned 31 today.

Possible Irish recruit Callum Robinson just notched one.

edit: and a second soon after.

[Fixer82]

Possible Irish recruit Callum Robinson just notched one.

edit: and a second soon after.

What's his Irish connection?

[SkStu]

What's his Irish connection?

http://www.punditarena.com/football/nmenezes/exciting-young-striker-deemed-eligible-to-play-for-the-republic-of-ireland/

I believe it is a grandparent.

[DeLorean]

My friend said McGeady was different class and it just looked so easy for him. He got man of the match.

Edit (here's a little more from him about the ground, Preston's fans appreciation of McGeady and O'Dowda's contribution) -

"Ya a nice ground definitely, an older type but still well up to standard. Even an old fella near me would move forward in his seat whenever McGeady got the ball. Bristol City were shocking. Felt sorry for O'Dowda, worked hard making good runs, played their striker through on goal with a super ball at 0-0. They took him off then and changed formation to attack more so he would have benefited from the change if he was on."

[SkStu]

Any idea from your football friend (aww friend!) what role/position McGeady was playing and what formation PNE were lined up in Delorean? I think part of why McGeady was so underwhelming overall last week was down to how he was deployed so would be interesting to see how PNE are getting the best from him...

[DeLorean]

He says they lined up in a 3-4-3 and McGeady was left of the front three. Cunningham was left wing back which is interesting I guess. He praised him also saying he looks well able to defend and comfortable on the ball.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c3/1c/c9/c31cc9eefe0ba03ff5f2a1b302d94a05.jpg

[DeLorean]

Preston's nasty looking run of fixtures is proving to be exactly that as they lost 3-1 at home to Norwich and are now mathematically out of the playoff picture. Boyle, Cunningham (got injured as Tets mentioned on his own thread) and McGeady all started with Hirgan coming off the bench. No sign of Hoolahan in the Norwich squad, must be injured again?

[zero]

sunderland given permission by preston to talk to simon grayson about becoming their new manager...

[Closed Account]

sunderland given permission by preston to talk to simon grayson about becoming their new manager...
Odds on McGeady joining Sunderland have shortened.
http://i.imgur.com/lHOeNXw.png

[OwlsFan]

I suspect the two posts are connected.

[DannyInvincible]

Hopefully, Grayson's switch to Sunderland (now confirmed (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40444054)) won't impact too negatively upon the Irish players already at Preston, nor upon Seánie Maguire who'll arrive in a few weeks time at a club being managed by someone who didn't actually sign him.

[TrapAPony]

Kevin O'Connor signed today from Cork City on a 3 year contract

[Olé Olé]

Given that he put pen to paper subsequent to Grayson's departure, you'd imagine that O'Connor sought reassurances that he was still wanted at PNE. Hopefully this was the case and he was informed he was very much wanted by the club and not just the manager.

It will be interesting to see who comes in. David Moyes anyone?

[OwlsFan]

It will be interesting to see who comes in. David Moyes anyone?

The downward spiral that ends in Rochdale and then anonymity or, if he's lucky, a gig as a pundit, but he doesn't have the Sky glam about him though.

I see Di Canio is also one of the favourites. I wonder how many applications to they get for posts like this? Must be hundreds.

[liamoo11]

Given that he put pen to paper subsequent to Grayson's departure, you'd imagine that O'Connor sought reassurances that he was still wanted at PNE. Hopefully this was the case and he was informed he was very much wanted by the club and not just the manager.

It will be interesting to see who comes in. David Moyes anyone?

Doesn't really matter if the club want you if a manager comes in and doesn't think you fit his plans nothing anyone else in the club can do about it.

[Olé Olé]

Tell yourself that, Liam. The club have spent the money and the club expect him to play. The manager would want to be incredibly successful to not play O'Connor and nobody on the board to have a word with him. Preston don't spend much money.

[DeLorean]

Looks like Alex Neil is going to be that man - https://twitter.com/SkySportsNewsHQ/status/882169681209065472

[Olé Olé]

Wessi's mate...

[DeLorean]

I guess they had a bit of a mixed relationship. He relaunched Hoolahan's career initially after he had been frozen out by Hughton.

[Olé Olé]

Definitely was mixed but I think the ending was negative. It's fairly widely reported that a contributing factor to him being given the boot by Norwich was a disagreement on Wes as Neil wanted to sell.

[DeLorean]

Was strange the way things went alright, if there was any truth to that. He used still start him fairly regularly, if not quite as much as he had previously.

[liamoo11]

Tell yourself that, Liam. The club have spent the money and the club expect him to play. The manager would want to be incredibly successful to not play O'Connor and nobody on the board to have a word with him. Preston don't spend much money.

No manager is going to allow boardroom interference in picking a team and rightly so. Preston have 30 odd senior players who all will feel they have a chance with a good one season to play. A new manager will want to bring in some of his own players and his own system so the manager who signs you moving on before you get started is not ideal even if as you seem to think the chairman and the board have posters of you on their walls. O Connor has it all to prove moving from a part time league and hopefully he does great but if he brings your attitude of entitlement with him I can't see things working out well

[tetsujin1979]

Interview with Alex Neil on NewsTalk over the weekend: https://cdn.radiocms.net/media/001/audio/000031/199238_media_player_audio_file.mp3

[DeLorean]

Definitely was mixed but I think the ending was negative. It's fairly widely reported that a contributing factor to him being given the boot by Norwich was a disagreement on Wes as Neil wanted to sell.

Neil put that story to bed in his interview above anyway, it always seemed like nonsense anyway I thought.

I know things ended badly enough at Norwich for him, but he comes across as an impressive guy I think.

[Olé Olé]

Neil put that story to bed in his interview above anyway, it always seemed like nonsense anyway I thought.

I know things ended badly enough at Norwich for him, but he comes across as an impressive guy I think.
Definitely agree. Has the potential to be a really good manager. Norwich hasn't been a good home to managers recently (Hughton and Lambert with their hands up).

[DeLorean]

Irish derby tonight, Preston v Burnley. Horgan, Boyle & Doyle start for Preston, Long, Brady & Walters for Burnley. O'Connor, Cunningham, Browne, Maguire, Ward & Hendrick on the bench.

Burnley lead 1-0 through some gate-crasher called Anderson.

[DeLorean]

Maguire off the mark and Kevin Long also scored! Burnley lead 2-1.

[DeLorean]

Preston lead 5-1 at Fleetwood. Maguire got his first start along with Cunningham & Browne. Maguire won the penalty which made it 3-1 and Horgan has since added a fourth with a fine strike after being introduced. Browne had hit the bar at 1-1 with an audacious effort from close to half way. Doyle and O'Connor have joined the action as well.

[OwlsFan]

((Just did 40 minute post and then posted it and got a message about lack of security authentication and lost it - aagggggrrrhh - will try again))

Back from the front after 3 days in Preston. Flew over (3.45 am start) on Friday to Manchester (a few kids on the plane in Man City colours) and then train to Preston. Sheffield Wednesday team stayed in the same hotel which was a bonus and had a few photos taken and even got on their bus. They came down to the lounge on the Friday evening as I ate sub-standard nachos and a terrible bruschetta and they drank tea and played on their phones. Interesting that the management and their various flunkies keep their distance from the players.

Kieren Westwood: the wife (I didn't have the nerve) asked could she take the photo of the players and Westwood got all the players to stand up and he beckoned me over to join them for the photo. I told him I thought he should be starting for Ireland to which he replied "fair dues". He had a quiet game and wasn't tested much with only a couple of saves to make but he did go the wrong way for the peno.

Deepdale: Nice but soulless ground with 4 square unlinked sides. Owls’ fans sold out their end amounting to 6k of the 18k attendance. Nice to see an Alan Kelly Snr Walkway. Had the misfortune to be sitting (on my hands) in front on one of those totally myopic fans who never sees any foul by their own side and questions every referee decision which goes to the opposition. He thought referee and one lineman were from Sheffield and continued on that basis even though PNE got a penalty. His chant of “You dirty Yorkshire basta*d” to an Owls player from Argentina said it all.

Corporate: I did a corporate so I could get a ticket for the game. Interesting to see who goes to these. We were at a table for 10. While there were no prawn sandwiches in evidence (beef or chicken tikka masala), our table was me, the wife (no interest in football), a friend from way back who lives in Durham but who went to school in Preston for a year when he left Ireland (rugby man with an interest in football) and his partner (she had no interest in football). The 6 locals were very friendly even though one insisted on telling me bad Irish jokes, but they do this once a year but had no great interest in the game. So out of a table of 10, one who was genuinely bothered about the result Cost £80.00 for the privilege.

Kevin Kilbane: Kevin was one of 3 ex-PNE players introduced to us. He was not impressed when introduced by the slimy compere as a "local lad and a token Irishman". "Is that what I am now?" replied Killer in not too friendly a manner but he then went on to say how delighted he was to see so many Irish at PNE and how the League of Ireland was "very under-rated" and mentioned that Dan McDonell was at the game from the Irish Independent. I grabbed KK for a second and told him, within earshot of the compere, to pay no heed to that "sh*t" about being a token Irishman and by the way would be mind taking a selfie with me to which he obliged. Before I could go through each of his 100+ caps with him, he was wisked away to some other duty.

Seani Maguire: reminds me of Shaun Maloney – small, compact, busy and with an eye for goal. Had the only shot on target in the first half. Subbed in the second half to a standing ovation. I would worry about his lack of height in a league where physicality is often the order of the day but it looks as if he’ll be given a chance.

Alan Browne: to be honest, didn’t notice him much and was subbed also in the game.

Gregg Cunningham: On the cover of the programme and 3 page article inside under the title “Captaen na Foirne”. He is currently the captain of the side due to an injury to the existing captain. He is delighted to see the Irish at PNE and the 3rd strip is now green apparently because of the influx. He keeps an eye on Galway Utd in the LoI and is happy to welcome the competition from Kevin O’Connor (not in squad). The programme describes “the wealth of talent in the Airtricity League”. In a defence dominated game Cunningham played well.

Daryl Horgan: was an unused sub.

Post match: walked in to the city centre. First pub we stopped in had signs warning about the use of illegal drugs. Next we thought of grabbing a McDonalds but there was a man mopping some blood on the pavement outside with 8 policemen and a police dog in attendance. We got the next taxi back to the hotel.

Conclusion: nice to see KK, the Alan Kelly walkway, photo with Kieren Westwood, the lots of mentions of the Irish PNE connection, 4 Irish on the field but 0 pts for the journey was the botton line.

[johnboy]

((Just did 40 minute post and then posted it and got a message about lack of security authentication and lost it - aagggggrrrhh - will try again))

Back from the front after 3 days in Preston. Flew over (3.45 am start) on Friday to Manchester (a few kids on the plane in Man City colours) and then train to Preston. Sheffield Wednesday team stayed in the same hotel which was a bonus and had a few photos taken and even got on their bus. They came down to the lounge on the Friday evening as I ate sub-standard nachos and a terrible bruschetta and they drank tea and played on their phones. Interesting that the management and their various flunkies keep their distance from the players.

Kieren Westwood: the wife (I didn't have the nerve) asked could she take the photo of the players and Westwood got all the players to stand up and he beckoned me over to join them for the photo. I told him I thought he should be starting for Ireland to which he replied "fair dues". He had a quiet game and wasn't tested much with only a couple of saves to make but he did go the wrong way for the peno.

Deepdale: Nice but soulless ground with 4 square unlinked sides. Owls’ fans sold out their end amounting to 6k of the 18k attendance. Nice to see an Alan Kelly Snr Walkway. Had the misfortune to be sitting (on my hands) in front on one of those totally myopic fans who never sees any foul by their own side and questions every referee decision which goes to the opposition. He thought referee and one lineman were from Sheffield and continued on that basis even though PNE got a penalty. His chant of “You dirty Yorkshire basta*d” to an Owls player from Argentina said it all.

Corporate: I did a corporate so I could get a ticket for the game. Interesting to see who goes to these. We were at a table for 10. While there were no prawn sandwiches in evidence (beef or chicken tikka masala), our table was me, the wife (no interest in football), a friend from way back who lives in Durham but who went to school in Preston for a year when he left Ireland (rugby man with an interest in football) and his partner (she had no interest in football). The 6 locals were very friendly even though one insisted on telling me bad Irish jokes, but they do this once a year but had no great interest in the game. So out of a table of 10, one who was genuinely bothered about the result Cost £80.00 for the privilege.

Kevin Kilbane: Kevin was one of 3 ex-PNE players introduced to us. He was not impressed when introduced by the slimy compere as a "local lad and a token Irishman". "Is that what I am now?" replied Killer in not too friendly a manner but he then went on to say how delighted he was to see so many Irish at PNE and how the League of Ireland was "very under-rated" and mentioned that Dan McDonell was at the game from the Irish Independent. I grabbed KK for a second and told him, within earshot of the compere, to pay no heed to that "sh*t" about being a token Irishman and by the way would be mind taking a selfie with me to which he obliged. Before I could go through each of his 100+ caps with him, he was wisked away to some other duty.

Seani Maguire: reminds me of Shaun Maloney – small, compact, busy and with an eye for goal. Had the only shot on target in the first half. Subbed in the second half to a standing ovation. I would worry about his lack of height in a league where physicality is often the order of the day but it looks as if he’ll be given a chance.

Alan Browne: to be honest, didn’t notice him much and was subbed also in the game.

Gregg Cunningham: On the cover of the programme and 3 page article inside under the title “Captaen na Foirne”. He is currently the captain of the side due to an injury to the existing captain. He is delighted to see the Irish at PNE and the 3rd strip is now green apparently because of the influx. He keeps an eye on Galway Utd in the LoI and is happy to welcome the competition from Kevin O’Connor (not in squad). The programme describes “the wealth of talent in the Airtricity League”. In a defence dominated game Cunningham played well.

Daryl Horgan: was an unused sub.

Post match: walked in to the city centre. First pub we stopped in had signs warning about the use of illegal drugs. Next we thought of grabbing a McDonalds but there was a man mopping some blood on the pavement outside with 8 policemen and a police dog in attendance. We got the next taxi back to the hotel.

Conclusion: nice to see KK, the Alan Kelly walkway, photo with Kieren Westwood, the lots of mentions of the Irish PNE connection, 4 Irish on the field but 0 pts for the journey was the botton line.

Cheers for this Owlsfan, interesting to get an insight into the PNE match day experience.
its a difficult one for me because I want to see the Irish do well. but I hate that Preston have sucked so match talent out of our league. Blame the system I suppose and not the beneficiary.

[Stuttgart88]

Brilliant read, thanks for that.

You do have a thing about keepers going the wrong way for pens!

Deepdale was rocking when Arsenal played there. The myopic fan experience sounds like when I was at Inchicore to see Pats v Rovers in the spring. Hilarious. My 11 y/o can now swear fluently in a Dublin accent.

KK is a legend.

[gastric]

O'Connor to make his debut for in the League Cup with Boyle and Horgan also to play. Will have to try and watch this.

[samhaydenjr]

O'Connor to make his debut for in the League Cup with Boyle and Horgan also to play. Will have to try and watch this.

Five Irish players on the pitch for Preston and they lost to Accrington Stanley. "Accrington Stanley", I hear you say, "Who are they?" Exactly.

[OwlsFan]

Five Irish players on the pitch for Preston and they lost to Accrington Stanley. "Accrington Stanley", I hear you say, "Who are they?" Exactly.

One of the first league clubs to go out of existence in my lifetime and then do a Lazarus: that's who they are :)

[Stuttgart88]

Every kid who bought Shoot! or Roy of the Rovers in the late 70s or earl 80s will have known that!

[DeLorean]

I once had my letter to Jimmy Greaves published in Shoot. Got a cheque for £5 (sterling) too as a reward! Match was better for the posters though. :)

[OwlsFan]

I once had my letter to Jimmy Greaves published in Shoot. Got a cheque for £5 (sterling) too as a reward! Match was better for the posters though. :)

I got one as well for a cartoon I sent in. The player says to the referee: "That's the second time you've asked for my name. Here's my card". I thought it was hilarious (AT THE TIME).


Every kid who bought Shoot! or Roy of the Rovers in the late 70s or earl 80s will have known that!

I subscribed to TIGER which included Roy playing for Melchester Rovers with his side-kick, Blackie Gray, and the goalie Tubby Morton (all keepers in those days were somewhat overweight). Whenever Rovers played a foreign team, the opposition were cheats.

[DeLorean]

Another goal for Maguire today but Preston go down 3-2 at home to Brentford, Egan with an assist for them. Horgan replaced Maguire with thirteen minutes left. Boyle and O'Connor unused subs with Browne and Cunningham both unavailable.

[Olé Olé]

On my phone so can't send a link but it's on balls.ie for anyone who wants to see it. And I suggest you do. Absolutely wonderful goal. Ran almost half the field and shower serious composure. I'll get across to the PNE forum where I'm certain they're raving about it, in spite of the loss.

4 goals and it's only October. Double figures, here comes Seani.