Tag Archives: Preston North End

4th March 2023- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 0

Slaven Bilic’s final game as Head Coach.

Attendance: 19,244

BBC Sport: The Hornets’ best chance came mid-way through the second half as Ismaila Sarr volleyed just wide from a Ken Sema cross.

Sky Sports: The contest had all the excitement of a pre-season friendly for much of the afternoon, with Preston keeper Freddie Woodman producing the only two saves of note during 90 forgettable minutes.

BHappy: After the break as the half time introductions of Davis and Asprilla offer us at least the suggestion of potency, the visitors resort to base thuggery.  Bambo Diaby is a centre back in the Dan Shittu mould… outstanding at anything asking questions of his physical attributes, he does as good a job of standing up to  Keinan Davis as anyone has this season.  Anything that requires defensive nous or, you know, a football however and he’s less effective – he gives the ball away clumsily in midfield on two occasions as the chinks in North End’s considerable armour begin to show, and manages to avoid censure for sacking Ryan Porteous at a corner. 

Fran’s Watford blog: I was in Watford bright and early on Saturday to attend the Match of the Century at the West Herts, which was celebrating 100 years at Vicarage Road for the Hornets and 100 years of local sport at the West Herts.  The two teams were the West Herts football team and a team made up of Watford fans who had bid to be part of the Watford Centurion team.  West Herts wore the yellow, red and green shirts that the club wore in 1901.  The Centurions wore the current third kit that was worn by the club when Vicarage Road opened.  It was a competitive game that West Herts won 3-0, despite a decent performance from Matthew Archer in the Centurions’ goal and a lively cameo from young Alastair Grass.  The defeat for the Centurions was hardly surprising, given that they had only met that morning, but it could not be blamed on Tommy Mooney, their manager, who was taking his role very seriously so could not be approached to sign copies of the Watford Treasury until after the game.

20th August 2022- Championship, Preston North End 0 Watford 0

https://www.watfordfc.com/post-match/preston-north-end-first-team-watford-mens-team-2022-08-20/statistics

Attendance:15,317

BBC Sport: Preston North End played out a fourth goalless draw in five Championship games against a Watford side who also continued their unbeaten start to the season.

Sky Sports: The home side had the better of the first half, with Alan Browne and Ryan Ledson forcing saves from Daniel Bachmann. Vakoun Bayo and Rey Manaj squandered huge chances for the Hertfordshire side either side of the break.

BHappy: The team selection betrays a dilemma that would have been difficult to anticipate at the start of last season when, after promotion on the back of a solid defensive record we attempted to re-arm the attack.  Things didn’t go well for Ashley Fletcher, whose recruitment was surely with half an eye on the possibility that we wouldn’t get promoted in 2021, but if he’s the sixth cab off the rank for a newly promoted side (and without the benefit of “less than the sum of our parts” hindsight) you’re surely doing OK. But all six are unavailable for today’s game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62529130

28th November 2020- Championship, Watford 4 Preston North End 1

Post Match

Another home game, another win – a sixth in seven games – and a best start to a season at Vicarage Road in at least 13 years. No wonder the fans are so desperate to have their name pulled out of the hat ahead of the return of supporters next week.

Watford batter Preston North End with attacking display

Watford produce impressive display to beat Preston North End

Vladimir Ivic wants improvement despite Watford win over Preston

Watford players rated after thrashing Preston North End

Nathaniel Chalobah delighted to score for Watford against Preston

Joao Pedro hoping to learn from Watford captain Troy Deeney

Vladimir Ivic calls Troy Deeney a leader after Watford win

Watford captain Troy Deeney marked his first start of the season with an inspired display in a 4-1 victory over Preston.The 32-year old scored one and created another to give the Hertfordshire side a comfortable afternoon at Vicarage Road.

Watford made it 19 points from a possible 21 at Vicarage Road this season, but had to overcome a side which boasted the second-best away record in the division, with all but three of their 16-point total earned on the road.

If we’re edging closer towards what things Ought To Be off the pitch, we’re suddenly ahead of the game on it.  Today’s shuffling of the deck saw the fielding of the same 20 names that muddled their way to a point at Ashton Gate on Wednesday but with a critical switch bringing Troy in for his first start of the season in place of João Pedro.

Ahead of supporters returning to the Vic, it was a welcome return to form for Watford, who turned on a scintillating second half display to punish Preston.

15th February 2011-Championship, Watford 2 Preston North End 2

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Preston threw away a two-goal lead to leave manager Phil Brown still searching for his first win since taking over at the rock-bottom Championship club.

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Every series of Masterchef – mmm, topical – has an awful lot of contestants. That being the case, a helping hand is provided in the shape of a short, simple label for us to remember each one by, a three-words-or-less summary of their entire existence prior to having their life changed by cooking scallops with a minted pea puree for Greg and Jeff. (I know it’s not Jeff, but I can’t be bothered to look it up.)

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7th November 2009-Championship, Watford 2 Preston North End 0

BHappy image report:From the first minute where Preston’s defence watched a cross float to the far post with the immobile, distracted air of kids at a firework display it was evident that fun could be had.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=36566&id=4885
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4th October 2008- Championship, Watford 2 Preston North End 1

Watford came back from a goal down to earn a win over Preston thanks to Tommy Smith’s 50th goal for the club.

A quite ridiculously open game of football that looked like delivering many more goals at each end. Due in no small part to our formation – going 4-4-2 without John Eustace in midfield was always going to be a high risk strategy. We had enough to make it pay off; all six of our “attacking” players had good afternoons.

23rd February 2008- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 0

Watford lost ground on leaders Stoke after being held by spirited Preston.

On Saturday night, as Watford’s players digested another disappointing home result in a season blighted by them, they were asking themselves one question: chicken or beef?

Some days it just doesn’t bounce for you.  Had Doris scored his early chance, Preston’s impotence in attack suggests we’d have won comfortably – not until the last twenty minutes did a victory seem anything but inevitable. 

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2008-02-23
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/23-february-2008/

6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4663
BBC Sport

 Preston got their Championship campaign off to a winning start after coming from behind at Watford.

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 Four match reports including: Like the first discovered alien lifeform, this one is going to be prodded and poked, stared at and x-rayed, questioned and interrogated. Its every molecule will be examined, checked, recorded. By the time that we’ve finished with Watford versus Preston North End, there’ll be nothing left but a small puddle of purple goo.

19th March 2005- Championship, Watford 0 Preston North End 2

This was the final game in Ray Lewington’s reign as Watford Manager.

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BBC SportDavid Nugent and Paul McKenna were on target as Preston stayed on course for a place in the Championship play-offs.

guardianFootball is a game with ever-altering ambitions, where the only goals that never change are those at each end of the pitch. When the season started these sides will have shared the same aim but by the time this match ended their immediate desires will have been entirely opposite. One side are dreaming that their form will carry them out of this division while for the other precisely the same possibility forms a nightmare.

BSAD imageThere’s a point, at about quarter to five on an otherwise sunny and bright and cheerful Saturday afternoon, when this becomes almost physically unbearable. While the rest of the country celebrates the arrival of spring, the effort required to maintain the connection between backside and plastic is virtually impossible, and the commitment to doing so utterly inexplicable. Only sheer paralysis causes eyes to remain focused on the pitch, rather than returning to concrete and feet, or being closed in torment or buried behind palms of hands.

An important home match in front of a sell-out crowd before two tricky, long distance away games, Watford had to win this. It was made even more vital by stupidly throwing away a two-nil lead against Leicester on Tuesday night. However, the ninety minutes which we witnessed were very bleak, and gave us little confidence in the now forthcoming relegation fight. A team lacking our star performer of recent weeks in Jay Demerit saw an unconvincing defence line up of Smith, Cox, Doyley and Chambers. Lewington played an unadventurous midfield line-up of Ardley, Mahon, Gunnarsson and Jackson. Webber partnered Helguson up front.

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Taken from the programme on 6th August 2005- Championship, Watford 1 Preston North End 2

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