Simpson's first month in charge of league football, brought some highs and some lows. The highest, beating Wolves 3-1 on the sky cameras after being a goal down, with Nugent producing 2 marvellous goals and proving what all the hype over him is about. However that victory has been Preston's only competitive win under Simpson's management.
Simpson's record so far is: played 6, won 1, drawn 3, lost 2, including a carling cup loss to Port vale, who at the time headed the league 1 table. His record so far looks bad and many fans aren't pleased with the results, especially after the high performances given under Davies' reign. However, people are forgetting that PNE never start the season well, and this is in fact our best start to a season since our first campaign in this league.
Simpson has so far not succeeded very well in the transfer market, possibly because he has been trying to fend off David Nugent's suitors, but he has brought in some astute signings such as Sean St.Ledger, who appears to be a quality find. Kelvin Wilson and Jason Jarrett were brought in but they were pre-arrangements whilst Billy Davies was in charge. Simpson has brought in Danny Pugh from Leeds and Liam Chilvers from Colchester. The manager has been desperately looking for a new striker to partner Nugent up front, due to our lack of firepower and woeful luck on the injury front with both Ormerod and Nowland out with broken legs.
Back to the football side of the business, Simpson's PNE are proving to be a solid outfit but not as strong as last season, due to the loss of defenders Mears, Lucketti and Davis(all sold) and Mawene(season long injury). However an average of 1 goal conceded per game is a sound record if our goal scoring average was to improve, which is ironically also 1 per game. Pre season, Simpson offered attractive football to the fans and so far I feel let down by his promise, I think our performances are too negative and lack flair, this is only my opinion though and I have only experienced 1 home game and glimpses of our victory on Sky. PNE currently lie in 16 place with 6 points from 5 games which is only 3 points behind the final play off position.
However, I feel optimistic for the rest of the season and looking forward to watching Simpson's team unfold over the remaining fixtures, remember there are 41 games to go so there is time to improve.
Roll on Cardiff on 9 September!!! (Forget the fact that they are top)
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