# Preston North End v Newcastle United Match Preview

**Preston North End’s final game of their 2019/20 Championship preparations sees the Lilywhites entertain Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United at Deepdale.**

The game, organised at short notice after the appointment of Bruce into the St James’s Park hot seat, will see him take charge of the Magpies for the first time in England at Deepdale, in this 3pm kick-off.

Following Friday’s clash with Fleetwood Town, the remaining members of the squad not involved at Highbury are likely to start against the Premier League side, with their final chance to impress the manager in competitive action ahead of the season opener at Millwall next weekend.

The squad have come through pre-season to this point with no significant injury problems and therefore the manager will have a number of questions ahead of the trip to The Den and players could cement a place in the starting XI with a good display against the north east outfit.

Brad Potts and Darnell Fisher had been a little behind in terms of match minutes, but the latter got a first start on Friday evening and the former is likely to see more action on Saturday. David Nugent also got his first run out since his return at Fleetwood meaning he could push for some involvement against Neil Harris’ side.

The matchday programme will also feature the new No.35 as the main interview and this will be on sale from the ticket office and inside and outside the ground, priced at £2.

The match official will be EFL referee Michael Salisbury, with the assistants of Ian Hussin and Connor Brown, whilst fellow EFL referee Graham Salisbury the fourth official – it will be Michael’s first game in charge of a game at Deepdale.

> Ticket prices have been set at £10 for adults, £5 concessions (over 65s and 19 to 24-year-olds) and £1 for U18s. The stands open for home supporters will be the south end of the Sir Tom Finney Stand (closest the Alan Kelly Town End) and the Alan Kelly Town End - the Invincibles will not be open for standard tickets.

Print at home e-tickets are available again and are available on MyPNE.Com, the printed version is then just presented and scanned at the turnstiles, the same way the member and season cards already are making it easy to get your ticket for matchdays.

Tickets can be purchased over the phone on 0344 856 1966, in person from the ticket office or online at www.mypne.com, with the ticket office open from 9am on matchday. Even though the Invincibles Pavilion is not open, the ticket office in that stand will be open from 1pm selling tickets for the other two stands.

The game will be streamed live on iFollow PNE, with Guy Clarke and former North End forward Brett Ormerod on air from 2.50pm – for information on how to subscribe, then click here now.

We will also have full match coverage via our social media channels, with the highlights and full 90 minutes uploaded to iFollow PNE the following day, so that if you miss the match, we’ll still have you covered!

# Preston North End 2 Newcastle United 1

**Preston North End completed their pre-season preparations as they came from behind to record a 2-1 win against Newcastle United in monsoon conditions at Deepdale.**

Rain fell heavily all game, making it a difficult afternoon, despite the pristine playing surface, but the accuracy from the penalty spot of Paul Gallagher lit up PR1 with a positive performance from the home side.

A Jonjo Shelvey free kick had given the visitors a half-time lead, but two second half penalties from North End’s No.12 gave them the win, thanks also to Declan Rudd, who saved a penalty at the other end from Migi Almiron.

Steve Bruce fielded almost a different team in either half, with nine interval changes, whilst the majority of the Lilywhites completed 90 minutes in their preparations for the Championship opener against Millwall.

After a cagey first 25 minutes, when both sides had good spells of possession without causing too many problems, the first involvement of either keeper saw a great save from Rudd, to deny Shelvey from edge of the box, after a pull back from Isaac Hayden; the North End No.1 also doing well to deny Hayden from the resulting corner.

Just after the half hour mark the home side went very close to opening the scoring when skipper Tom Clarke had a volley deflected off Matt Ritchie and behind for a corner after a Sean Maguire knock down from Paul Gallagher’s free kick on the right.

And from another Gallagher set piece, this time a corner left, the ball in caused all sorts of problems in the Magpies box, Maguire’s volley deflecting, but not falling to PNE feet in a good shooting position.

However, the Magpies took the lead six minutes before the interval. It was Shelvey who scored it with a vicious free kick from 30 yards out, beating Rudd, after Fabian Schӓr had run from his own box and been brought down by Alan Browne.

The first 15 minutes of the second half was a tale of two penalties. Thirty seconds into the half Newcastle’s record £40m signing, Brazilian Joelinton, won a penalty, referee Michael Salisbury pointing to the spot after the striker went down without much connection from a defender.

> But there was a twist to the tale as a great save from Rudd denied former Atlanta United man Migi Almiron – diving with two hands away to his right to palm the ball away.

Alex Neil’s men looked sharp as the second period really got going. A brilliant one-touch move with Ben Pearson and Gallagher combining to set up Alan Browne for a first-time curling effort from 25 yards that Freddie Woodman did well to get down and save low to his left.

On the hour mark the scores were level. Some excellent recycling of the ball from an initial attack saw Clarke get space to deliver a cross on the right, but the ball struck Jamie Sterry on his out-stretched arms and again Salisbury had no hesitation in pointing straight to the spot.

Gallagher stepped up, beginning - as always – with his back to goal, before turning and firing a bullet of an effort into the bottom left hand corner, so that despite Woodman going the right way, he had no chance of keeping the ball out.

And the run of spot kicks continued! This time, with 19 minutes to go a Gallagher corner was recycled back out to Barkhuizen, whose deep cross was headed back into the box by Clarke, with Joelinton bringing down Bauer on the penalty spot and the match official again whistled immediately for the penalty.

Once again Gallagher went with his now well-rehearsed routine, but chose to viciously fire the ball into the complete opposite corner, the top right, with Woodman once again having no chance of preventing PNE taking the lead.

The north east side almost levelled matters less than five minutes later, but it would have been in controversial circumstances. A drop ball was uncontested, but former Blackpool man Sean Longstaff chose to send the ball through for Jack Colback, who ran in on goal, but was denied by an excellent stop from Rudd.

There could and perhaps should have been a third goal with the last touch of the game as Barkhuizen broke down the left and pulled the ball back for Browne, whose shot was well blocked by Ciaran Clark. The ricochet fell to Brad Potts, playing against his boyhood club for the first time, but – on the stretch – he couldn’t keep his volley down and it flew over the bar as the final whistle went.

**PNE line-up** : Rudd, Clarke (c), Hughes, Pearson, Bauer, Davies, Barkhuizen, Gallagher, Maguire, Browne, Potts. Subs not used: Crowe, Moult, Rafferty, Simpson, O’Reilly, Walker.

**Newcastle United line-up** : Woodman, Dummett (Clark, 46), Schӓr (Ki, 46), Shelvey (c) (Lascelles, 46), Ritchie (J Murphy, 46), Muto (Joelinton, 46), Hayden (Colback, 46), Aarons (Almiron, 46), Fernandez, Manquillo (Sterry, 46), M Longstaff (S Longstaff, 46). Subs not used: Darlow, Cass, Sorensen, Watts, Allan.

**Referee** : Mr M Salisbury

**Attendance** : 4,982 (1,359 Newcastle United fans)