Deepdale Digest

Former Preston player still waiting on testimonial is released by League One side

As Preston North End fans bid a likely farewell to one stalwart in Alan Browne on Monday night, one former decade long Lilywhite was considering his next step also. There’s a few Preston players who’s contracts expire this summer and look set to leave the club for good. Of course Alan Browne is the most high profile, but Patrick Bauer, Greg Cunningham, Ched Evans and Ben Woodburn are unlikely to have extensions on the table. Liam Millar will also see his loan deal finish after the West Bromwich Albion game on Saturday, and there are doubts whether he will want to continue playing as a wing-bac...

Preston post-match notebook: Dreadful run continues as Alan Browne bids emotional farewell

Preston North End put up little fight as Leicester City romped to the Championship title with a 3-0 win at Deepdale. North End had kept it fairly tight in the first half before Jamie Vardy scuffed a shot into the corner. The Lilywhites heads then dropped as they so often do and the second half was a training exercise for Leicester. Predictable You’d struggle to find a Preston fan who would have thought this game would have ended in any other manner. As so often seems to be the case we end up watching other teams celebrate success at the end of the season. Leicester needed a win to secure the t...

Preston North End's end of season award winners announced as players choose defender as their winner

Preston North End have announced the winners of the end of season awards on Sunday night. In a change to previous years the club released a pre-recorded video on YouTube. Recent seasons have seen the awards take place on the Deepdale pitch after the last game of the season. But with the last home match coming on a Monday night the club have chosen to switch things round for this year. The awards look to have taken place at the training ground earlier in the week and interviews with the winners were recorded shortly after. Scholar of the Year Max Wilson was the winner of the first award, with t...

Former Preston player and fan favourite scores his first goal in professional football

Álvaro Fernández, who spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Preston North End from Manchester United, scored his first professional goal yesterday whilst playing for Benfica. The Spanish left-back played the full 90 minutes and found the back of the net in Benfica’s 3-1 win against Farense, marking a significant milestone in his promising career. Whilst at Preston, Fernández made 42 appearances but failed to get on the scoresheet, so this goal will be a memorable one for the young defender. What may come as a surprise is that he scored it with his right-foot after cutting inside. The 21-year-old...

5 things Ryan Lowe and Preston North End need to do this summer

Preston North End’s season has fizzled out once again, and with just two games left fans are already looking ahead to the summer and hoping for improvements on the pitch. There are some positives to take from this season with Mads Frokjaer and Milutin Osmajic proving to be two good signings from abroad, and perhaps North End will look to Europe once again. However looking at the existing squad there are a few priorities which must be taken care of first. The up and and down form across the season has highlighted a few things that need to change, and the Ryan Lowe can’t be blameless for the inc...

Preston post-match notebook: North End down tools and Woodman hands the win to QPR

Ryan Lowe’s Preston North End continued their dreadful April form as they handed Queens Park Rangers a 1-0 win thanks to a calamitous error from Freddie Woodman. The win almost guarantees QPR safety and any relegation struggler must relish the chance to play Preston at this stage of the season. Amateur performance from Woodman Freddie Woodman has been one of the more reliable players in the Preston team this season. He did go through a sticky patch before Christmas and was dropped for the game against Swansea City. But the second half of the season has seen his confidence rise and more clean s...

Preston post-match notebook: North End players on their holidays in mid-April once again

Preston North End were on the end of a heavy defeat from Southampton on Tuesday night. The Saints comfortably won 3-0 with the game wrapped up in the first half. It was a result that the vast majority of Preston fans could have predicted. As is often the case at this stage of the season when the play-offs just move out of sight, the players and management effectively pack their bags and head off to the beach. We’ve been here before At this stage of the season in both of Ryan Lowe’s previous campaigns we have seen some embarrassing displays resulting in easy wins for the opposition. After losin...

Preston post-match notebook: Absent players and poor decisions in pivotal game see North End lose out once more

Preston North End fell short in what was their pivotal game of the season, as Norwich City scored a late winner to strengthen their hold on the final play-off place. After some favourable results in midweek Preston had the opportunity to overtake The Canaries if they beat them and won their game in hand. The game was finely poised throughout but ultimately Preston lost out to a very strong team with more quality on show. Déjà vu It feels as if many of our seasons in the Championship since returning to this level in 2015 have ended in this manner. We have patches of good form intertwined with s...

How the play-off picture looks for Preston heading into the final month, and the remaining games for the contenders

Football is a funny old game. After the defeat to Birmingham on Easter Monday and the goalless draw away to Watford last Saturday, it looked like Preston’s season was fizzling out. Norwich City had beaten Ipswich Town in the early kick-off on that Saturday and they were looking strong to finish the season in the top six. Even at half-time on Tuesday night, with Norwich beating Sheffield Wednesday, and North End a goal down to Huddersfield Town, Preston were 10 points behind The Canaries. Four second half goals for Preston, including a hat-trick for Milutin Osmajic, coupled with a comeback from...

'It's a shame': Leicester City ace barely playing under Enzo Maresca after failed PNE transfer

Preston North End wanted to spend on a new striker before last summer’s transfer deadline and ended up bringing Milutin Osmajic to Deepdale. Osmajic was a real departure from North End’s usual transfer approach. A Montenegrin striker on the books of a La Liga club, coming off the back of loan spells in Turkey and Portugal. North End fans had wanted to see some more imagination in the transfer market and Osmajic was a hugely surprising addition. To make the move even for stunning, PNE broke the club’s transfer record in the process with a £2.15million deal. Osmajic has been through ups and down...