GRAYSON PLAYS DOWN THE HYPE
Jackett still on hunt for first win
PRESTON manager Simon Grayson could be excused for having just a sly look at the Championship table after his side maintained their impressive recent run of form.
North End ruined Rotherham’s celebration of their 100th league game at New York Stadium as they cruised to three points, thanks to goals from Jordan Hugill, Callum Robinson and Marnick Vermijl, with Aiden McGeady particularly impressive throughout.
It extended their run to just one defeat in seven league games, in which they have beaten Aston Villa, Huddersfield and Norwich and drawn at Brighton.
This scalp in South Yorkshire hardly ranks alongside those, but it takes Preston to within spitting distance of the play-off places.
But in a division of heavyweights, Grayson is keen to play down any suggestion that his side will compete at the top.
“We are not going to get carried away, we have had a good October and start to November, we get a week now to work on things,” he said. “In the first month of the season we lost five out of six and we didn’t get despondent, so we are not going to get carried away now.
“We will keep plodding along and see where it takes us. We haven’t got the budget of some of the teams up there, but we have got some good individual players and a good team ethic.
“We set out to make sure we stay in the division and see where it takes us. We have got no aspirations from people above me to say we have got to get promoted.”
On the win, Grayson added: “Overall it was a good professional performance. We said we had to match them physically and we did that. There were some good pieces of play.”
The foundations of the win were laid by two goals in five first-half minutes and they came in almost identical fashion as Hugill and Robinson both nodded home following good work from the left.
Rotherham gave themselves the briefest of hope when Richard Wood headed home, but Vermijl’s breakaway goal in the final ten minutes killed the game.
Kenny Jackett is still search- ing for the right combination as his side continue to leak goals at an alarming rate.
Their goals against tally reads at 38 from just 16 games and the defensive frailties look set to condemn the Millers to the drop.
Jackett has taken a point from his first three games at the helm, and though he has looked to have made improvements, he in no doubt where the problems lie.
“We have given poor goals away again which has put them in control of the game,” Jackett said. “Finding a defensive setup which can keep us in games is tough and it was tough again. Preston looked like they could score goals.
“The goals against column has hurt us and it’s deflating for the players because you need to stay in games.
“The last two games we have been very competitive and tight and been lucky but we didn’t have a defensive solidity to keep us in the game. We were defensively slow to react.
“It’s trying to find the best combination for us, it’s the third game we have gone 4-4-2 and I think that is the way to go.
“It was the worst of the three performances I felt, not in terms of effort. I was looking for more of the same.”