ddo

Byrne playing for Preston today against Southport. Link to teamsheet: https://twitter.com/benjastley/status/224134616980799490

It's from a pne forum, here: http://www.pne-online.net/forum/showthread.php?73016-Filipe-Morais/page3

Photo taken at Preston's training ground today, apparently:

The Sun in 'making stuff up' shocker. The Sun newspaper have issued a retraction of a story published on 30th January about manager Graham Westley. Published online and in Saturday 4th February's edition of the newspaper, the apology reads as follows: "An article on January 30 stated that Graham Westley, Manager of Preston North End FC, had sent a bizarre late night text telling players to prepare for a 9/11 style terror attack and encouraging reaction to it. Our report was incorrect. "We accept that Mr Westley sent no such text to players or otherwise. We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to Mr Westley and Preston North End FC."

As a North End fan just want to say this isn't correct. It's true we have to get the wage bill down (it was £11m at one point), but our only debts are to our owner who bought the club to stop it from going under 12 months ago. He'd been discretely funding some stupid spending excesses (eg 500k for Trotman) under the awful Alan Irvine, and stepped in when the proverbial hit the fan. There's no prospect of administration or anything like that, the whole point is to steady the ship. It won't be easy, but having watched a lot of league one footy (I get to around 14 Latics games a season, done a couple at Rochdale this year too) I'd say something would have to go fairly badly amiss for us not to be challenging for top six at least. We're likely to sell Andy Lonergan, Sean St Ledger, Paul Parry, Darel Russell, and Paul Hayes as they're on BIG wages, but we'd only really miss St Ledger out of that lot. We may lose Keith Treacy too, and Billy Jones has already gone, but we've a crop of very good youngsters coming through, and we're nowhere near as financially crippled as Sheff Utd will be. I'm more positive about the coming season than I have been about one for years and years.

He's more or less certain to join Hudds.

North End's keeper situation is a little more complex than that. Wayne Henderson has been out most of the season just gone with a back injury that looks like it might end his career. He certainly won't be playing for a while. Our third choice keeper, Chris Neal, has only played one first team game (when he came off the bench), and it seems no-one expects him to ever be good enough to break into the first team. That leaves Andy Lonergan as the only viable option, and he's an outstanding shot-stopper, but doesn't command his area, dithers, and drops the occasional clanger. We're definitely in the market for a keeper who can push Lonergan for the no 1 jersey.

I’m a season ticket holder at Preston (live in Oldham, Latics are my second team, get to BP when home games don’t clash with North End’s), so I’ve seen a bit more of Ricketts recently than many. All the things being posted on this thread are very, very similar to what was on the North End messageboards after he’d put in a few appearances for us. The same arguments went on for a while, but a consensus was reached long before the end of the season, and it wasn’t good. I was of the opinion, initially, that he was a quality player that just need to regain a bit of form and would come good. Seeing him stink out Deepdale for the second half of last season convinced me otherwise. Whatever form he had at Bolton is long gone, his performances at Leeds, Burnley, Cardiff, Southend, Preston, and possibly now Oldham give an indication of what his ability is nowadays. I’ve only had chance to see him twice since he joined Latics, but those performances were exactly the same as the every single one he put in at Deepdale. He looks like he’s about to do something special, but it just doesn’t come off. It never did. He looks like he’s using his football brain to make decent runs, take up good positions, but it doesn’t quite work out. It never did. He plays what looks like a skilful, clever flick, but it doesn’t find a team mate. They never did. Then he stops chasing balls, stops running, stops trying I really wanted him to come good when he signed for North End. Southend fans really wanted him to come good for them, no doubt Burnley, Cardiff, and Leeds fans felt the same. All of us were disappointed, in the end. Now, I really, really hope that dropping down a division, working with a new manager etc. will get his head straight, that he’ll be able to focus on football, to put in the effort that had been lacking for the last few years. I want him to score goals, to get the buzz back, to do well. I hope it goes that way, but I’m afraid I’m not overly confident. One things for sure, though, booing him isn’t going to help.

Name? Paddy Location? Lees How Long Supporting the Tics? I'm a recent convert. From Preston originally, I've been a season ticket holder at Deepdale for years. Am now living in Oldham and catching as many Latics games as I can, got to about 12 or 13 last season, hoping to do the same this year. Best away match you've been to? Not been to any Latics away games, although I have seen them at Deepdale. Does that count? All Time Greatest Player? I'm going to have to say Eyres, aren't I? Biggest Rivals (in your eyes)? I'm hoping anyone up and around the top of the table this season.