Bleak pre-season for new-look North End

With currently thirteen new faces within the playing squad, Preston’s pre-season has been a lot more action packed and more about bedding the new faces into the managers playing style and ideas. However, so far this doesn’t seem to have entirely gone to plan.

With such an amount of new signings being brought in it means that to accommodate the financial fair play rules some of the high earners must be moved on. Last season’s top scorer Iain Hume, along with youngsters Danny Mayor and Jamie Proctor have been told that they are free to leave the club and have been forbidden from pre-season training with the rest of the squad and instead must work on their fitness in the gym. This has caused much concern between fans as Hume in particular has offered so much to the club during his stay but is being cast out by his manager.

Another major talking point has been the remarkable departure of goalkeeper Richard Wright just a week into his 12 month deal. Wright claimed that home sickness was the reason behind his sudden departure but many fans have speculated that the former England stopper was not willing to fight for his place with current No.1 Thorsten Stuckmann. Following the former Arsenal stopper’s departure, manager Graham Westley has trialled numerous goalkeepers to fill the void left by Wright.

At the time of writing, the supporters have been able to witness Westley’s new look side four times but have only seen them win once. An away following of 1,400 to Southport’s Haig Avenue witnessed North End grab a 2-0 victory over the non league side thanks to an own goal and a penalty form trialist Joel Byrom. However, that has been the only real positive in terms of results with a defeat at League Two Morecambe and 1-1 draws against local semi professional teams Bamber Bridge and Chorley. The result against Chorley proving more shocking given the fact that North End had won past ten meetings between the two.

So far in the warm up games, I have personally made a small conclusion into Westley’s better buys so far have been. Stevenage midfielder John Mousinho who has captained the side in all of the games so far and lead by example with his never say die attitude. Former Swansea City striker Lee Trundle has shown his ability with a superb solo strike against Chorley and despite being a very dubious signing given his age and injury problems he has impressed greatly with his link up play. Another questionable signing was Woking’s defensive midfielder Jack King who has played his football in the non leagues for a number of years and is not a full time professional. So far, King has been deployed in centre back and has looked very comfortable and has certainly shown supporters what he can do despite being asked to play out of position.

With not the most promising of results from the pre-season fixtures so far, improvements must be made if the side is to be ready for the season opener against Colchester United. But, I for one am predicting a mid-table finish for North End. Transfer activities are yet to be concluded according to the chairman and with a goal-scoring striker added to the team I firmly believe that progress will be made from last season’s miserable campaign.

[ad_pod id=’writer-2′ align=’right’]