Stoke City v Preston North End
Coca-Cola Championship
Saturday 19th January 2008, 3pm kick-off
Final Score: Stoke City 3 PNE 1 (Cort 16, 72, Cresswell 27; Brown 68)
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90 + 3 mins: Time up. Preston are defeated, but by no means disgraced. It's just a shame they couldn't turn their early dominance into a goal, and then that they suffered a sucker-punch when they thought they were back in the game at 2-1. They get plenty of adulation from the fans who are still inside the ground (the majority of the 1,500 Prestonians, as it happens), but sadly we don't take home any points. Next week the attention turns to the FA Cup, and whether it's Derby or Sheffield Wednesday, we'll be here as usual with all the action as it happens. See you then...
90 + 2 mins: Lonners sends a long ball over the top which Whaley meets, but his shot loops high and wide.
90 + 1mins: To their credit, the Preston fans are still singing, but sadly it looks as though the trip home will feel a lot longer than the journey here.
90 mins: The 90 minutes are up but no sign of the fourth official's board yet.
87 mins: A number of cars can now be seen on the horizon, heading down the road to the A50 to get away from the melee that's surely about to follow. Judging by the gradual emptying of the away end, the cars are presumably setting their sat-navs in the direction of Preston.
86 mins: Substitution for Stoke - Jon Parkin is the final arrival, coming on for Rory Delap.
84 mins: There could have been some salt rubbed into wounds just there. Danny Pugh tricked and turned his way through a crowd of bodies but a flying block from Callum Davidson deflected it narrowly over the top.
82 mins: Substitution for Stoke - Ricardo Fuller has been relatively quiet by the standards we've come to expect from him down the years, but he's still had a decent outing. At least he won't give us any more bother now that Vincent Pericard is on.
80 mins: A great passage of keep ball but we can't find the target. Brown tees it up for McKenna after umpteen neat passes but the shot is very similar to the Carter effort moments earlier.
78 mins: McKenna lines up a long range shot for Darren Carter but he pulls it wide despite getting decent power behind his strike.
77 mins: Substitution for Stoke - Former Liverpoool man Salif Diao (or 'Jowwww' as the locals seem to call him) continues his comeback from injury by replacing Liam Lawrence.
73 mins: Finally some noise from the home fans that hasn't been funnelled through a speaker system, as 'Delihah' rings out around three sides of the ground. We hit back with a rousing chorus of 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You'.
72 mins: Goal for Stoke! Just when we thought we were back in it we get struck by a sucker punch. Leon Cort heads in off the underside of the bar from a right wing Liam Lawrence corner - his second goal of the game. Decent effort for a full 'second debut'. 1-3
69 mins: The decibel level rises again. The PNE fans have been brilliant so far.
68 mins: Goal for PNE! The changes make an impact straight away. Whaley's deep cross is headed back into the middle by Lewis Neal, and though Carter can't get a head on it, the ball lands at the feet of Chris Brown to smash home his first Preston goal from close range. For some reason the PA man gives it as a Shawcross own goal but we're giving it to the new boy. 1-2
67 mins: Substitution for PNE - Carter for a very tired Chaplow. He's done a lot of hard work, but the lack of games before his arrival is probably making life hard for him right now.
64 mins: There are now two Stoke fans watching from the grass bank on the far side. The second one must have heard that Mellor was coming on.
63 mins: Substitution for PNE - Hawley off, Mellor on, and the PNE fans give the arrival a very warm reception.
62 mins: Straight up the other end, Cresswell is shoulder charged by Chilvers, who's practically last man, and though it looked fairly innocuous, the free kick is given. If it's a foul, then surely a card should follow? It doesn't. Very random decision making. Still, they mess up the free kick and Lawrence lumps it over the bar.
60 mins: 15,011 people - including 1,593 PNE fans - see St Ledger skin Cresswell in the box and appears to get hauled down, but the ref has none of it.
58 mins: Whaley's cross hits Eustace and goes behind for a corner. Sadly it doesn't lead to anything notable.
56 mins: Brown appears to head over the top from Whaley's cross but the PNE faithful are up in arms - they think a Stoke hand helped it on its way.
53 mins: We've had an e-mail through from Ian Ryding over in the USA. He writes: "Preston may have won their last two games, but have only scored two goals. When they win, it seems they are winning on defence and are not really creating many goal scoring opportunities. Do you think Irvine needs to energize the side by trying a more aggressive 4-3-3 formation?" Whatever it takes to get the three points is fine by me. If Alan wants to go all Kevin Keegan on us it will surely be fun.
50 mins: Another long throw nearly causes another defensive blunder. Rory Delap launches it long and Youl Mawene's headed connection nearly deflects the ball past his own keeper. It takes a brilliant reactionary save from Lonners to keep the score at two.
47 mins: I've just been brought one of the local pies for sampling purposes and as is the local want, it's very 'oaty'. Nice to have a bit of variety on our travels.
46 mins: North End start the half on the attack. A positive start.
1604: I hope the connection problems have been resolved and we look forward to 45 minutes where hopefully North End can turn this around.
1550: If you're listening on Whites World, please can you drop us a line to let us know how things are going audio-wise because we're getting mixed messages as to whether it's getting through to you all ok. Thank you!
1545: Half-time and it's been a sorry 25 minutes for the visitors after such a promising start. The away fans, however, give them a rousing reception of 'yellows' as they leave the field.
45 mins: One minute of added time will follow.
44 mins: There's not enough room for Chris Sedgwick to join his colleagues under the shelter of the dug out so he has to take a seat in the stand alongside Jonny Sumner. At least it's not raining.
43 mins: Shawcross fires one over the top.
41 mins: Brave keeping at the other end too as Simonsen denies Brown at the tip of his studs as he looks to make something of Whaley's cross.
38 mins: Ricardo Fuller wants a penalty for a supposed foul by Chaplow, but the referee has none of it. The loose ball lands in a good position for Shawcross to strike but Lonergan comes out bravely to smother.
37 mins: Anyone who's been to Molineux will be familiar with the grass banking at the 'South Bank' end, and there's something similar hear. A lone spectator has taken up a spot at the top of the embankment over on the far side, which affords him a cheese sliced view of the action.
35 mins: Back online just in time to see Pugh lash one wide of the far post as we look at it.
27 mins: Goal for Stoke! I'd just hit the 'save' button on the phrase 'still 1-0 to PNE' as Liam Lawrence delivers a cross from the right and Andy Lonergan comes to collect a routine ball at chest height. Sadly he drops it straight at the feet of Richard Cresswell who taps home the second. 0-2 and we're still having the toolkit problems - apologies if you're reading this on something of a delay.
24 mins: Sorry for the temporary loss of coverage folks. The 'toolkit' software we use decided it couldn't be bothered working for a few minutes - yet another thing I'll have to shout about on Monday morning in our weekly gripe e-mail to the site developers. While we were gone, McKenna had a shot charged down by Ryan Shawcross and Danny Pugh miscontrolled when Fuller played him through. Still 1-0 to the hosts.
16 mins: Goal for Stoke! Completely against the run of play, Ryan Shawcross (their new permanent signing) lobs the ball onto the head of Leon Cort (their other new permanent signing) and he flicks it onto the inside of the far post and in. Whether he meant it or not was debatable, but we're undeservedly behind. 0-1
14 mins: PNE's football has been very promising so far, and only an offside flag tighter than a Yorkshireman stops Hawley from breaking free from the last line of defence.
12 mins: The corner comes in and Hawley's shot skews wide off a defender for another corner. This time it's cleared as far as Lewis Neak who returns a cross towards Youl Mawene, but a free kick goes against North End for shirt tugging before the Frenchman can get his shot away.
11 mins: Brown is felled 25 yards out and it's a PNE free kick. Davidson is teed up by McKenna in a 'Cardiff' fashion but his shot deflects off the wall for a corner.
9 mins: A press box colleague has just described Stoke's tracksuit and baseball cap-wearing manager Tony Pulis as a 'chav'. I'm sure he'd be delighted.
8 mins: The more I look at Stoke's shirts, the harder it becomes to read the numbers. Navy lettering on red and whites stripes is never easy to read. PNE's navy on yellow, by contrast, is brilliant.
5 mins: Today's referee, Stuart Attwell, is only officiating his second game at this level. I'm sure the assessors will be monitoring his performance closely, but he's started the game with no problems.
4 mins: Another free kick, this time awarded to PNE for a high foot by Danny Pugh. Seems odd typing about him handing a free kick to PNE after all this time.
3 mins: Neat response from PNE as Brown's ability to hold the ball up brings Chaplow into the game, and his through ball sends Hawley through. Unfortunately the strikers can't bring the ball down cleanly and is called back by the referee for handball.
2 mins: Good start for the hosts who threaten from long throws and set pieces but the danger is averted.
1459: The game starts - moments sooner than I expected. "Come on Stoke" yells a very small sounding person on the mic as the game kicks off.
1458: The PA man - who you can't fail to hear - has just introduced PNE's ''Yowl'' Mawene and Simon ''Wally''!
1457: Here come the teams and the noise is deafening - partly due to the crowd but mainly due to the hugely cranked up PA. You'd never get anyone as loud as that at Deepdale...
1450: The away end looks very busy now, and the 1,000-plus North Enders are starting to make some good noise away to our right.
1445: Strange things are starting to happen here. The home mascots look like hippos for some unbeknown reason, and the cheerleaders look a little young for my liking. There also seems to be an obsession with parading large flags at these away venues. A large Stoke City emblem is being hoisted around the centre circle by an army of young volunteers, while PNE hit back with a large 'Proud Preston' St George Cross flag covering several seats in the away section.
1440: Stoke have something of a retro electronic scoreboard over on the opposite side of the ground to where we're sitting. Takes you back to the good old days, far better than these fancy electronic screen thingys that most new grounds have.
1436: Danny Pugh gets a resounding round of applause from the hosts as his name is read out over the deafening PA. I've got headphones on so I can't tell what sort of reception he got from the PNE faithful - honest!
1434: He may be employed primarily as a masseur, but PNE's Jonny Sumner is showing some great skills down there on the pitch as he assists Dave Timmins in warming up the goalkeepers. Sign him up!
1430: We're just going live on Whites World. It might mean my updates slow down to an extent, so tune in now to stay right up to date with all the big match build-up.
1425: The teams are in a little late today, but at least we have them, that's the main thing. There's no change for PNE, except for Matt Hill's return to the bench in place of Brett Ormerod. Lewis Neal lines up against his old team while Stoke include three PNE old boys in Danny Pugh (today's centre page spread in the programme), Ricardo Fuller and the mighty Richard Cresswell. Central defensive partners Leon Cort and Ryan Shawcross make their first league starts since turning their respective loan deals into permanent signings.
PNE: Lonergan, St Ledger, Chilvers, Mawene, Davidson, Whaley, McKenna, Chaplow, Lewis Neal, Hawley, Brown. Subs: Chris Neal, Sedgwick, Carter, Hill, Mellor.
Stoke: Simonsen, Griffin, Cort, Shawcross, Dickinson, Lawrence, Delap, Eustace, Pugh, Fuller, Cresswell. Subs: Hoult, Parkin, Pericard, Zakuani, Diao.
1422: Will Greenwood has got it right already! He replies: "Hey guys, couldn't make the trip today unfortunately. I reckon it'll be a 1-1 with Chaplow scoring. And in answer to your trivia question I think its West Brom's stadium - The Hawthorns? Cheers, Up the whites!!!" Well done Will!
1414: We welcome your comments as ever, and I'm interested in one that came through after the victory against Watford last week. Joachim Trosch from Germany says: "I am convinced that it will be a good new year for PNE. Today's result confirms that as does the home win in the F.A. Cup last Saturday. I have absolutely no doubt that Preston will see Championship football next season as well." Thanks Joachim, more of the same please!
1410: Trivia fans might be intrigued to hear that this is the second highest ground in the country (in terms of height above sea level). We've already been to the highest this season - can you name it? Answers to matchday@pne.com.
1406: Hello and welcome to the Britannia Stadium, which boasts a pitch that looks in great nick for a surface that was supposedly subject to a late morning inspection. Maybe they wanted to show off to the referee that it has a very nice covering of grass.
