Sensational derby turnround fired by Neil’s home truths
IT HAS been 58 years since Preston North End were last in the top flight of English football.
And they are sitting pretty this morning in one of the Championship’s automatic promotion spots after mounting a sensational comeback to win a rip-roaring Lancashire derby.
Two down after 11 minutes, it took a tactical switch and a half-time pasting from manager Alex Neil to spark it.
“I was shellshocked on the sidelines for that first 20, 25 minutes,” said Neil. “Blackburn made it a derby and we didn’t.
“But we’re an honest group of lads and we had a few honest words at half-time.
“Good teams respond and we reacted and the second-half display was fantastic.
“Some teams talk about philosophies and all that crap but I’m here to win games.
“We needed to turn it around and go more direct and we did.”
North End remain unbeaten at Deepdale and are only two points behind leaders West Brom.
It seemed unlikely when Rovers, backed by 5,000 fans, came flying out of the traps and went one up within a minute.
From Adam Armstrong’s cross, Sam Gallagher’s header found the corner via the post and Declan Rudd. Although the replays showed the Preston keeper had got the final touch to take it over the line.
But there was no denying the big Rovers striker as he curled it past Rudd for the second.
It was only his second goal of the season and his first in the Championship since netting on loan for Birmingham in January 2018.
Neil did not waste time changing things as target man Jayden Stockley was sent on in place of captain Paul Gallagher before 30 minutes were up.
The visitors had chances to seal it before they let the hosts back into the game following a bad error by Rovers keeper Christian Walton.
The 6ft 5in Walton hoped Darnell Fisher’s deep cross would drop out at the far post.
It didn’t, Sean Maguire nodded it back and Tom Barkhuizen headed into an empty net. The hosts levelled from the spot through Daniel Johnson after Alan Browne had been brought down by skipper Elliott Bennett.
And the comeback was completed when Barkhuizen curled home a superb winner to seal this frantic encounter, leaving Rovers manager Tony Mowbray gutted.
“They had no idea how to score in the first half,” he said.
“But then the keeper messed up for the first goal and that got the crowd involved.
“They booted it long and played for fouls and second balls. It was all basic stuff.”