Preston kept their early season play off pretentions going until after Christmas this season, but have cratered so much since they’re now 15th in the league. Why does this keep happening to them, we asked @Josh_McLoughlin?

How's the season been for Preston?

It’s followed the form of many other seasons. A very promising start and then falling off a massive cliff. Many were predicting us to struggle back in the summer but we hit the ground running and were in the top six for most of the season up until January. Then we won one in 12 league games. And if it wasn’t for the win against Stoke the other week, we could have been dragged into a relegation battle. Early promise follows by familiar disappointment.

PNE in the league so far
QPR 1-1 Preston Whiteman og 41 – Osmajic 48
Preston 2-1 Leicester Devine 7, Osmajic 85 – Monga 67
Preston 1-0 Ipswich Osmajic pen 11
Pompey 1-0 Preston Dozzell 41
Preston 2-2 Boro Dobbin 22, Storey 88 – Targett 72, Hansen 90
Derby 0-1 Preston Devine 29
Preston 0-0 Bristol City
Hull 2-2 Preston McBurnie 48, 74 – Small 3, Smith 10
Preston 2-0 Charlton Small 67, Jebbison 80
West Brom 2-1 Preston Johnston 40, Price 62 – Smith 78
Preston 0-1 Birmingham Neumann 33
Preston 3-2 Sheff Utd Dobbin 45, Tanganga og 46, Jebbison 58 – Brooks 10, O’Hare 16
Southampton 0-2 Preston Dobbin 38, Frokjaer-Jensen 90
Preston 2-1 Swansea Small 8, Osmajic 49 – ji-Sung 80
Millwall 1-1 Preston Ivanovic 36 – Smith 15
Preston 1-2 Blackburn Devine 45 – Miller 45, Gudjohnsen 62
Watford 1-1 Preston Doumbia 45 – Jebbison 22
Sheff Wed 2-3 Preston McNeill 3, 14 – Whiteman 10, Dobbin 57, Frokjaer-Jensen 76
Preston 1-1 Wrexham Armstrong 81 – Moore 4
Preston 1-1 Coventry Jebbison 76 – Hughes og 70
Oxford 1-2 Preston Keersmaecker 53 – Storey 26, Jebbison 49
Preston 1-1 Norwich Keane 90 – Makama 85
Stoke 0-0 Preston
Wrexham 2-1 Preston Broadhead 39, Rathbone 77 – Devine 84
Preston 3-0 Sheff Wed McCann 28, Osmajic 61, Dobbin 85
Bristol City 0-2 Preston Dobbin 8, Devine 70
Preston 0-1 Derby Agyemang 82
Preston 0-3 Hull Miller 33, Famewo 45, McBurnie 49
Boro 4-0 Preston Browne 9, Conway 28, 54, Whittaker 42
Ipswich 1-1 Preston Clarke pen 90 – Gibson 72
Preston 1-0 Pompey Devine 40
Preston 2-2 Watford Dobbin 19, Osmajic 70 – Maamma 55, Offiah og 57
Blackburn 1-0 Preston Ohashi 90
Swansea 1-1 Preston Cullen 90 – Jebbison 26
Preston 0-2 Millwall Leonard 29, Cundle 90
Preston 1-3 Oxford Osmajic 12 – Helik 5, Lankshear 54, Brown 61
Coventry 3-0 Preston Sakamoto 17, Thomas-Asante 34, Grimes pen 50
Norwich 2-0 Preston Ahmed 17, McLean 39
Preston 3-1 Stoke Devine 15, 60, Osmajic 57 – Thomas 4
Leicester 2-2 Preston Daka 4, 81 - Moran 38, Whiteman 45

The play-off push of pre-Christmas really has melted away of late, you're even below us in the table as it stands, what's happened this time?

Two key points can be attributed to for the loss of form this time. Harrison Armstrong returned to Everton. An incredible player with so much energy in midfield. He had a huge impact for us. David Moyes recalled him to help out in January but he did so well he kept him. We held on to the hope he would return and didn’t adequately prepare for a replacement. We also lost Daniel Iversen to injury. He has won us so many points this season. One of the best in the league and we lost him for ten games and only won one of those. However, I wouldn’t just put it down to those two. We were letting in sloppy goals and we couldn’t create anything. The terrible pitch wasn’t helping. Everything seemed to be going wrong for us.

And why does that keep happening at Preston?

There’s a feeling that when we start the season well we are overachieving. No one expects us to be in that position therefore there isn’t an expectation to kick on. It’s always felt as if once relegation seems impossible the players take their foot off the gas. There’s an acceptance from the club that we can’t compete with the top teams despite what the table says. Many fans accept that too and there is a lack of ambition across the club. January transfer window provides an opportunity to kick on but we never seem to take it.

What do we think to Paul Heckingbottom at this point?

I’d say he’s liked by the majority of fans but recent form has been very testing for him. He struggles to win football matches. Just 29 out of 93 whilst Preston manager. He’s kept the same wing back formation that was unsuccessful under his predecessors. At times it’s been awful to watch. However, earlier this season you could really get behind it and there was obvious endeavour from the team. I think recently Heckingbottom has become frustrated and perhaps realised this is a tough club to take anywhere. We try the same things again and again and unless something major happens i.e a takeover or Peter Ridsdale moves on then we will carry on getting the same results.

The PNE board have repeatedly said money was spent this season, and yet midtable awaits again, what's the recruitment been like? What was done in January and left undone?

There was quite a lot of turnover of players in the summer. Investments were made on Odel Offiah and Thierry Small which both look promising and could turn into decent investments in terms of a transfer fee they could demand in the future. Daniel Iversen on a free transfer is as good of a transfer as you can get at this level. Then once again we’ve come up trumps in the loan market. Without Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin this season we would be in the bottom three. Pretty much all our creativity comes through those two. But once again we’re likely to see them move onto better things next season.

January was our chance to do something. We let Mads Frokjaer and Stefan Thordarson leave to bring in some funds. We paid £1m for Andrew Moran but he has only recently started playing games. Milos Lukovic was brought in on loan from Strasbourg but has played just 45 minutes. And we supposedly broke our transfer record (around £2.5m) to sign Callum Lang from Portsmouth. He looks a good fit for us and a likeable player but he arrives after a tough year of injury and is already on the medics table. So, January was underwhelming and coupled with Harrison Armstrong returning to Everton we were definitely left in a much weaker position.

Summer Ins >>> Odeluga Offiah, 22, RB, Brighton, £1.5m >>> Daniel Iversen, 27, GK, Leicester, Free >>> Thierry Small, 20, LB, Charlton, Free >>> Jordan Thompson, 28, CM, Stoke, Free >>> Andrija Vukcevic, 28, LB, Juarez, Free >>> Pol Valentin, 28, RB, Sheff Wed, Free >>> Michael Smith, 33, CF, Sheff Wed, Free >>> Jack Walton, 27, GK, Luton, Undisclosed >>> Jamal Lewis, 27, LB, Unattached, Free >>> Daniel Jebbison, 21, CF, Bournemouth, Loan >>> Alfie Devine, 21, AM< Spurs, Loan >>> Lewis Dobbin, 22, LW, Villa, Loan >>> Harrison Armstrong, 18, CM, Everton, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Mads Frokjaer-Jensen, 26, AM< Brondby, £1m >>> Stefan Teitur Thordarson, 27, CM, Hannover, £300k >>> Josh Seary, 21, RB, FC United, Free >>> Will Keane, 33, CF, Reading, Loan >>> Noah Mawene, 21, DM, Southend, Loan >>> Kaedyn Kamara, 20, CM, Ross County, Loan >>> Kacper Pasiek, 20, LB, Macclesfield, Loan >>> Theo Carroll, 18, AM, Curzon Ashton, Loan

Player of the year candidates?

It has to be Daniel Iversen. The Dane makes saves that he shouldn’t. A fantastic shot stopper and so glad we have him permanently now after previous loan spells. Shout outs for Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin too

Weak links in the team?

For me this team will never progress whilst it has Ben Whiteman in the team. A lot of fans will disagree but for me he will never be the difference in a game. He wouldn’t get into many other teams in this league. A very limited player who does the basics well but no more. For all the good they have done and still can do I feel the defensive trio of Liam Lindsay, Andrew Hughes and Jordan Storey have simply been together for too long now and the defence needs to be shaken up

How do you see the rest of the season going?

Up until the win against Stoke, I saw us hurtling down the table. I still wouldn’t be surprised with that continuing. But we basically have nothing to play for. It’s another poor end to the season and many fans including myself are losing interest in this team. It’s the same every season and it gets boring after a while. We’ll probably lose more than we win from the remaining games and then be promised the world in the summer and be told we should be grateful for having a club. It’s exhausting.

Links >>> Preston Official Website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Press >>> From The Finney — Blog >>> Deepdale Digest — Blog >>> PNE Online — Forum

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