REPORT: Desperate Dreadful Deepdale Disaster

[ClaretTony]

Preston v Burnley report

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/desperate- ... e-disaster

[IanMcL]

Sums it up.

Just a cobbled together set of lightweights, without purpose. Do they not understand that FA Cup is about being full on because your opponents will do whatever is necessary. Preston looked big and strong with purpose. We are still making our mind up.

The message, via team selection, was 'a not vital match'. That was reflected on the pitch - Koleosho excepted- with Josh Brownhill's post match interview confirming the fact.

[JohnDearyMe]

Agree with you on this being our most disappointing FA Cup performance since the Watford debacle.

[beddie]

Good and honest report CT. Now I’ve had time to calm down I’ve realised that Parker wasn’t over bothered about progressing hence his selection, his priority being the league. I was hopeful we’d have a strong line up and maybe get a couple of goals, even one then rest some of the players and defend in numbers. What it did tell me though is what I’ve thought for a while that three of the starting eleven are simply not good enough.

[Anonymous Claret]

Agree with you on this being our most disappointing FA Cup performance since the Watford debacle.

As bad as that was yesterday and also the Watford farce, they are both miles behind the embarrassment of the complete non show against non league Lincoln at home whilst we were a Premier League side. Sadly I was at all 3.

[Ptangyangkipperbang]

I will add disgraceful to your headline.5600 there and we turn out a performance like that.It was nothing short of an insult to all who paid good to go and get a massive slap in the face

[ClaretTony]

I will add disgraceful to your headline.5600 there and we turn out a performance like that.It was nothing short of an insult to all who paid good to go and get a massive slap in the face

It is a word I should have used in the title but I'd run out of the letter D.

[Wembley09]

Leeds and Sheff Utd gave up the Cup early to focus on the League.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) Parker's 2nd string have done really well (till yesterday) Scott played a weakened team in every round, and that didn't change yesterday. So his focus was always the League.

But that's backfired, because like I said with the 2nd string doing so well and getting us to one game from a Quarter-final.

Had we lost to Preston in the 3rd or 4th round with a 2nd string, yes it would have stung but the fans would have brushed it off to focus on the League.

But because a Quarter-final was up for grabs, that is what's made the fans so angry.. ontop of losing that place to a local rival.

Parker had a tough choice to carry on with the 2nd string like he's done in every round to focus on the League. Or take a chance, play his strongest team and take a chance on the League form/fitness. He chose to stick to his guns like he's done since the 3rd Round.

Promotion is an absolute must now after giving up that quarter final, or there will be hell to pay. But I've got faith.. Parker has a perfect record of getting out of this League, so I trust his strategy.

[CleggHall]

The team selection and performance showed a lack of respect to the travelling supporters, the FA Cup and indeed Preston. A mistake to withdraw Hannibal, he should have been in the team and up for it. We conceded before kick off!

[Burnley1989]

We've just got to take it on the chin, the better team on the day by some distance beat us. It hurts because I believe we are a better team, however 3 games against them this season haven't been good enough.

[summitclaret]

Once SP decided to pick a team so much physically weaker than PNE, the outcome was inevitable. They bullied us, with a lot of help from Brookes.

[fatboy47]

Disaster's maybe a bit strong....more of a dump taken a bit too close to our own doorstep for comfort...one we can't pass off as someone else's, and one that's gonna leave a pretty nasty lingering smell for a while.

[Alan Young]

Accurate and fair report. Nobody came out of that with any credit. We’ve got a good sized squad but the first 11 pretty much picks itself.

We needed to match their energy, passion and physicality but fell way short in all areas.

[beddie]

What gets me though is that we knew before the game that they’d be physical all over the pitch and bully us but we appeared to be wimps apart from the odd player. Imagine if Stan had been Manager, I dread to think what would have gone on in the dressing room afterwards. Totally unacceptable performance and no excuses.

[ClaretTony]

What gets me though is that we knew before the game that they’d be physical all over the pitch and bully us but we appeared to be wimps apart from the odd player. Imagine if Stan had been Manager, I dread to think what would have gone on in the dressing room afterwards. Totally unacceptable performance and no excuses.

I think we all know what went on in the dressing room after the last time Stan took a Burnley team there.

[GDK]

Good report. Must admit I was happy enough with the team selection before the match. We were bringing in seasoned professionals worth many millions of pounds, not some untested kids. Those players had earnt the chance playing in the previous rounds.

It was a real lesson in the importance of match sharpness and physicality at this level. I'm sure Parker learnt a lot about who is genuinely ready to slot in to the first team when needed....unfortunately the answer was not many of them.

[HurstGrangeClaret]

Very fair summary thanks Tony.
The semi final against Newcastle remains the most disappointed I’ve ever been after a cup game. Think I was more angry than anything after yesterday’s game.

[Silkyskills1]

In no way wishing to over dramatise yesterday's shambles but it may prove to be a watershed moment in our season. Our remaining fixtures involve a lot of sides with plenty to play for at both ends of the league. It won't have gone un-noticed that we didn't fancy the physical side of the game at Preston. I fully expect the next two games to be physical encounters, especially Luton next Saturday. We will find out whether or not we have the resolve to match it.

[TPClaret]

Agree with you on this being our most disappointing FA Cup performance since the Watford debacle.

Have you forgotten about Lincoln at home!

[IanMcL]

What gets me though is that we knew before the game that they’d be physical all over the pitch and bully us but we appeared to be wimps apart from the odd player. Imagine if Stan had been Manager, I dread to think what would have gone on in the dressing room afterwards. Totally unacceptable performance and no excuses.

This

[Vegas Claret]

spot on write up

[ClaretTony]

Have you forgotten about Lincoln at home!

No I haven’t. But I don’t put it close to yesterday or Watford.

[ClaretTony]

In no way wishing to over dramatise yesterday's shambles but it may prove to be a watershed moment in our season. Our remaining fixtures involve a lot of sides with plenty to play for at both ends of the league. It won't have gone un-noticed that we didn't fancy the physical side of the game at Preston. I fully expect the next two games to be physical encounters, especially Luton next Saturday. We will find out whether or not we have the resolve to match it.

Not on that pitch though thankfully

[ClaretTony]

Very fair summary thanks Tony.
The semi final against Newcastle remains the most disappointed I’ve ever been after a cup game. Think I was more angry than anything after yesterday’s game.

Absolutely. Newcastle was desperately disappointing and we didn’t play badly on the day. Yesterday it was very much anger after a seriously shocking performance in every respect.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Good report and we know it is time to worry when we trace back through the decades for comparable disappointments.

What I find most galling is that every side in the last 16, bar us, made a serious effort to go through. We have won what is now the Premier League more recently than Newcastle United have won any major trophy at all. Watching their match now they are desperate to win (and terrified they will not).

I simply do not see how 60 minutes of our more combative players would scupper Tuesday night. They will fly down. It is 3.5 days after. Yes, sub them on or off. But not playing at any point Trafford, Anthony, Hannibal, Cullen - an insult. We can’t be leaving players out paid tens of thousands per week just because of an incident the last time we met, that was comedy, it rewarded the alleged perpetrator.

I don’t see any way now that if Parker messes up promotion he can come back for another season. He has set it all up as promotion or bust - in my view unwisely.

[IanMcL]

Watching the other cup matches, both teams are going for it and committing themselves to a win.

Only Burnley put our a team of also rans.

Disgrace.

[kentonclaret]

4 of the 5 Championship clubs left in the FA Cup at this stage were lying mid table or below and could thus afford to field their strongest 11’s and run around for 90+ minutes like maniacs.
As for yesterday’s match showing that Burnley are not up for a physical battle? Was that evident in the league game against the same opponents just a couple of weeks ago?

[IanMcL]

4 of the 5 Championship clubs left in the FA Cup at this stage were lying mid table or below and could thus afford to field their strongest 11’s and run around for 90+ minutes like maniacs.
As for yesterday’s match showing that Burnley are not up for a physical battle? Was that evident in the league game against the same opponents just a couple of weeks ago?

Every team is playing virtually strongest team. Goalkeepers often the exception, as their number 2 is prem class, anyway.

[Wembley09]

4 of the 5 Championship clubs left in the FA Cup at this stage were lying mid table or below and could thus afford to field their strongest 11’s and run around for 90+ minutes like maniacs.
As for yesterday’s match showing that Burnley are not up for a physical battle? Was that evident in the league game against the same opponents just a couple of weeks ago?

Cardiff are fighting to stay clear of relegation. Plymouth are fighting to get out of the relegation zone, and Millwall are fighting for the playoffs.. win their game in-hand and they're only 4 behind West Brom.

Preston were the only mid-table Championship side without anything to focus on in the League.

Not too clued up on the others line-ups, but if they afforded to field their strongest 11's and run around like 'maniacs' it makes us look even worse, as 3 of those teams still have real issues to focus on in the League.

[Spijed]

Watching the other cup matches, both teams are going for it and committing themselves to a win.

Only Burnley put our a team of also rans.

Disgrace.

Leeds and Sheffield United didn't put much effort in and yet no-one criticised them for getting knocked out.

[ksrclaret]

Leeds and Sheffield United didn't put much effort in and yet no-one criticised them for getting knocked out.

Because we’re Burnley fans.

[ClaretTony]

Leeds and Sheffield United didn't put much effort in and yet no-one criticised them for getting knocked out.

I don’t think you will find either were playing in the fifth round

[Clovius Boofus]

Very fair summary thanks Tony.
The semi final against Newcastle remains the most disappointed I’ve ever been after a cup game.

I was only a bit of a kid back then, but I still remember the game and how gutting it was. The FA Cup was massive and this is why the defeat really hurt. Everything stop at 3.00pm on the Saturday afternoon for the final. Nowadays, if it's not raining, we go out somewhere, rather than stay indoors and watch the match - this would have been unthinkable back in the day.

[taio]

Leeds and Sheffield United didn't put much effort in and yet no-one criticised them for getting knocked out.

You don't mean on here, do you?

[Bacchus]

Still think 'disappointing' would be the best word if we're insistent on the alliteration. It was a fifth round match and some are acting as though we tossed off a semi final.

Had we been in mid table, or clear at the top like Leeds are, there would have been a much stronger argument for a full strength team. Given where we are in the league, there was an opportunity to protect and rest key players and get some match fitness into squad players who we may need at some point. It's difficult to argue with the cold, hard logic of Parker's approach.

[Bullabill]

It is a word I should have used in the title but I'd run out of the letter D.

How dare you alliterate on a forum of the illiterate?

[HurstGrangeClaret]

I was only a bit of a kid back then, but I still remember the game and how gutting it was. The FA Cup was massive and this is why the defeat really hurt. Everything stop at 3.00pm on the Saturday afternoon for the final. Nowadays, if it's not raining, we go out somewhere, rather than stay indoors and watch the match - this would have been unthinkable back in the day.

I was 15 at the time and can remember getting back from Hilsborough still in tears. My mam said.”Never mind love, there’ll always be another time.”
She never did know a great deal about football!

[Woody9229]

How dare you alliterate on a forum of the illiterate?

He likes alliteration does our Tony.

Late 70's and I got sent off playing football at Walsden for Red Rose. As manager Tony wasn't impressed and as editor of the club Newspaper/Newsletter He wanted the Headline of our next edition to be W****R WOODWARD WALKS AT WALSDEN!! Decorum and threat of physical violence got him to to reconsider. Due to a non football related black eye I had from a few weeks earlier for some reason the white of my eye was bright red still.

The one that went to press had the headline "RED EYED RED ROSE GETS RED CARD"

[Woody9229]

I was 15 at the time and can remember getting back from Hilsborough still in tears. My mam said.”Never mind love, there’ll always be another time.”
She never did know a great deal about football!

I was similar age to you. We were surrounded by Newcastle fans as there were loads in our end and I was in floods of tears as the final whistle went and one of their fans reached into his pocket and gave me a polo to console me. It still hurts and that is also why Saturday was so frustrating. This was a good draw for us and a game we should have won with a decent team selection and a modicum of good attitude. One game from another semi-final and we carelessly tossed away that opportunity. Going even deeper in to the competition might have made up for so much of the turgid football we have seen for too much of this season. As others have said this performance/result puts a massive amount of pressure on the team tomorrow and they need to respond and to some extent that will justify Parkers selection. I have a bad feeling but will see.

[ChorltonCharlie]

Still think 'disappointing' would be the best word if we're insistent on the alliteration. It was a fifth round match and some are acting as though we tossed off a semi final.

Had we been in mid table, or clear at the top like Leeds are, there would have been a much stronger argument for a full strength team. Given where we are in the league, there was an opportunity to protect and rest key players and get some match fitness into squad players who we may need at some point. It's difficult to argue with the cold, hard logic of Parker's approach.

Agree. Unfortunately, it’s the reality of modern football, and it’s rubbish. From a business point of view, it’s prioritise the PL because of the riches on offer. I don’t like it, but I can understand it.

On the football side it puts enormous pressure on the next 2 games, especially after the win for Sheffield United. Win them both and Parker can turn around and say in the bigger picture the team selection on Saturday was the right thing to do.

[mikeS]

It was bad but Lincoln and the Wombles were really embarrassing.

[ClaretTony]

It was bad but Lincoln and the Wombles were really embarrassing.

As much as they were, our performances in those two games were nothing like that on Saturday. In fact, I remain in total belief that we'd have beaten both with strong referees.

[Row x]

As much as they were, our performances in those two games were nothing like that on Saturday. In fact, I remain in total belief that we'd have beaten both with strong referees.

It might be an age thing, but it took me weeks to get over the Wimbledon game. A team flying high in the top division getting beaten at home, by such a low standing club was unheard of and embarrassing

[Targetman]

It was bad but Lincoln and the Wombles were really embarrassing.

The Wimbledon defeat was nothing at all like Saturday's game. There was no lack of effort from Burnley that day, yes it was a huge FA Cup shock at the time, but totally different from Saturday's loss.

[IanMcL]

Leeds and Sheffield United didn't put much effort in and yet no-one criticised them for getting knocked out.

I don't recall seeing them in this meaningful round?

[Ptangyangkipperbang]

How dare you alliterate on a forum of the illiterate?

Please forgive me for not putting capitol D

[Bullabill]

Please forgive me for not putting capitol D

No. But I would have forgiven omitting capital D.

[Ptangyangkipperbang]

You fell into the trap

[claretspice]

I understand the disappointment about Saturday, and I don't think it was a good performance at all, but I think a little bit of proportion is needed.

We were playing a good Championship team, with a good home record, at their ground on a pitch which - lets put it politely - suits their energetic and physical approach.

In addition, we obviously have a higher priority (i.e. promotion) and therefore need to be at our best for the game at Cardiff, which is a long journey quickly on the heels of Saturday. We made changes that reflected that priority. Preston on the other hand have nothing to play for in the league and so can prioritise progressing n the FA cup. They fielded a basically full strength team and were giving it their full focus.

Against that context, the result (Preston winning) really can't be that much of a surprise. I'm not sure it's a disaster at all, although it may be a disappointment. We played like a team thrown together (which it was) and which also had half an eye on Tuesday night. I'd expect us to have been more competitive (although the match statistics are fairly even) but I'm not sure it's that remarkable an outcome in the ground scheme of things.

Losing at home to Lincoln with the quality of the team we had at the time was a huge disappointment and a much bigger upset. I'm really not sure they're comparable.

If there's a real concern about Saturday, it's what it revealed about the suitability of Shelvey as a back up for Cullen, and Worrall as back up for our two centre halves. They were both way off it on Saturday. There were other poor performances, too and overall the impression was that our back up players are perhaps not quite as first team ready as we would want. That's a reason to absolutely prioritise the league, as Parker did on Saturday.

[strayclaret]

It might be an age thing, but it took me weeks to get over the Wimbledon game. A team flying high in the top division getting beaten at home, by such a low standing club was unheard of and embarrassing

You’re right I wore a black armband at work the following week. It certainly shut those weeds fans up