Report | Preston North End 1-2 Argyle
Here is the news in brief: Argyle won 2-1 at Preston North End on Saturday, but despite this victory, just the second in the league on the road this season, the Greens are, to all intents and purposes, relegated.
Luton Town’s 1-0 win over Coventry City, earlier in the day, meant that Argyle would have to win their final two games and turn around a goal difference of 14. We shall not pretend that this is likely.
So then, rather than your typical match report, this feels like a document of one of those days in football that no-one likes, that no-one wants. It’s a day we have seen coming for ages, but it still smarts when it arrives.
As we all know, you get relegated over a season’s work, not a day’s, but how wholly odd to be a Devonian team, and to have your fate sealed in Bedfordshire, while you are in Lancashire.
Luton’s game against Coventry was, by the 89-minute mark, already a barmy one. Coventry had a player sent off on 13 minutes, and Luton pummelled the Coventry goal, with no luck. The Sky Blues held out, then Luton had a red card of their own on 68 minutes. You can make your own minds up about the accuracy of the decisions.
Then, as the clock was about to hit 90, time in green and white stopped. Coventry’s goalkeeper and defenders got in a mess, Luton’s Shandon Baptiste rodded goalwards, and Argyle’s season essentially evaporated before their eyes.
Some of my colleagues and I watched the TV coverage from a Preston press room, depressed. You will have been watching, following, refreshing wherever you are in the world. It wasn’t a nice moment, was it?
Then came, for me, probably the bright spot of the afternoon.
Two of our press team – videographer Ellie and photographer Izzy – were pitchside, shooting the Argyle players’ warm-up. I went to check in with them, make sure all was well – at least, as much as it could be – and to ensure they knew the news, which of course they did.
At this point, the players concluded their preparations, and approached the Green Army, who gave them a mighty ovation.
It was genuinely moving. Here was a collective of people, from all over the land, numbering just short of 2,000, over 300 miles north of Home Park, Plymouth.
For some, it would have been their 23rd away league game of the season. From Sheffield Wednesday to Preston North End – up Hillsborough and down Deepdale. Plenty will have done multiple away games all over the country, seeing their Greens win just once before this. What commitment that shows.
And what loyalty to roar in such a manner, giving unconditional backing to a squad that had, moments before, effectively lost their Sky Bet Championship status. I have no doubt in my mind that it contributed to Argyle’s start to the game, in which Mustapha Bundu scored after 14 minutes, and the Greens led at half-time, showing the kind of snap in a tackle and swiftness of break that one may not have expected from a unit whose divisional status had basically changed for the worse within the previous hour.
Miron Muslic has more than once pointed out that if Argyle’s team had performed as well and as consistently throughout the season as the Green Army, safety would have been assured. He’s right, too.
A word for him, as well, though, because the way that Argyle have played of late shows that the boss’s messaging has got through to the players. Extrapolating Muslic’s record since taking over, for a 46-game season, you would find Argyle in glorious mid-table respectability.
It is a situation and time of year where you find yourself perhaps reaching for positives, but any analysis of Miron’s record so far means it is no stretch whatsoever to find cause for optimism for the future.
Back to this game, and it was commendable to see Argyle pressing Preston into mistakes, and once Bundu scored, the home crowd – since Preston are getting well and truly drawn into a relegation fight – got mightily jittery.
The goal was a really good one. Adam Randell’s peripheral vision saw him to spot Bali Mumba on the left, and Randell’s hooked ball into the space allowed Mumba to run on. A clipped low ball found Bundu, and a typically emphatic finish later, Argyle led.
Preston had their chances, for sure. Stefan Thordaarson probably should have scored when he timed a run into the centre perfectly, but got his header all wrong and it sailed over. Liam Lindsay was off target from a header from a deep corner, and it took an excellent Mumba block when Emil Riis tried an effort across the face of goal.
Argyle had their moments, too. One of many slick counter-attacks saw Muhamed Tijani play across the centre, but the ball did not sit for Ryan Hardie or Kornel Szucs. From a set-piece, a combination of Nikola Katic and Victor Palsson brought out a good stop from Dai Cornell.
Preston were on the front foot for most of the second half, but seemed destined not to score. The gasps of exasperation from the home end were frequent; they knew the importance of the game. But in perhaps a mirroring of the Green Army’s positivity galvanising their men, the PNE nerves had spread.
Even when Argyle presented Preston with a chance – Randell’s attempted clearance took a huge ricochet and presented a golden opportunity for the hosts – Riis and Milutin Osmajic made a hash of it.
And then Argyle sealed it. Callum Wright, without a goal in two years and four days, popped up to convert after substitute Maksym Talovierov had kept alive a long throw-in. Callum surely would not have picked this sort of occasion for his first Championship goal for Argyle, but it is hard not to be pleased, in isolation, for the likeable Liverpudlian.
Because football is football, Riis scored late on for Preston, offering them a glimmer of hope, but Argyle saw it out.
No matter how many times I have stared at the Championship table since Luton’s game finished, it still steadfastly refuses to change to amend our reality.
Almost certainly down. But nowhere near out.
Argyle: 21 Conor Hazard, 2 Bali Mumba, 5 Julio Pleguezuelo (40 Maksym Talovierov, 45+4), 6 Kornel Szucs, 9 Ryan Hardie (35 Freddie Issaka, 82), 15 Mustapha Bundu, 18 Darko Gyabi (4 Jordan Houghton, 82), 20 Adam Randell (capt), 25 Nikola Katic (8 Joe Edwards, 68), 26 Muhamed Tijani (11 Callum Wright, 68), 44 Victor Palsson. Substitutes: 31 Daniel Grimshaw (gk), 3 Nathanael Ogbeta, 19 Malachi Boateng, 30 Michael Baidoo.
Goals: Bundu 14, Wright 74
Booked: Pleguezuelo 33, Palssson 46, Houghton 90+2
Preston North End: 13 Dai Cornell, 4 Ben Whiteman (capt), 6 Liam Lindsay, 9 Emil Riis, 11 Robbie Brady, 14 Jordan Storey, 16 Andrew Hughes (12 Ched Evans, 76), 19 Lewis Gibson, 22 Stefan Thordarson (18 Ryan Ledson, 70), 28 Milutin Osmajic, 29 Kaine Kesler-Hayden. Substitutes: 41 Li-Bau Stowell, 2 Ryan Porteous, 3 Jayden Meghoma, 24 Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile, 26 Pat Bauer, 31 Theo Mawene, 39 Theo Carroll.
Goals: Riis 90
Booked: Thordarson 30, Whiteman 33
Referee: Matt Donohue
