In essence Preston defended poorly at three well taken set pieces the first of which came in the first minute. All three ended in headed goals. The tally could have bene mor ein open play except for the excellent Mawene.
Although you can judge relatively little on pre-season performances Preston have appeared to trawl through these practice games in a similar vein to their losing run at the end of last season.
Mellor went off injured early to be replaced by Hawley. The front two were ineffective as nothing was created by midfield. That's the same midfield as last season when we were equally ineffective except Kevin Nicholls who looked bewildered at playing next to Sedgewick who once again did nothing to merit a place either going forward or in defence.
I know that pre-season is only to gain fitness but the non-performance today makes me think we will be in for a long hard season. We have signed three players to add to a squad that missed out on the play-offs last season yet two of them only made the bench. The midfield is desperatly in need of a playmaker and to be honest anyone who knows how to play in midfield.
We could say Blackburn our at a higher level with better quality which is correct but they did not have to break sweat today to come away with an easy victory.
The next 46 league games will see how far this side can go under Paul Simpson.