Preston North End

Preston North End v Reading

Sky Bet Championship
Deepdale

Sunday 29th December 2019

3pm

Journey Time to the ground: 6 hours.  Another of the free coach trips, we left home at 7:45am for the 8:15am coach pick up in town.  After a 45-minute stop at Norton Canes services on the M6 Toll where we grabbed some brunch at Leon, we arrived at Deepdale shortly before 1:45pm.

Ticket Price: £24

Programme Price: £3

Attendance: 13,680 with 557 Reading fans.

This was my second visit to Deepdale having previously witnessed a 3-0 loss back in December 2004.  We took a look around the ground and had a look inside the club shop but with it being the weird time between Christmas and New Year there wasn't too much open so we made our way into the ground.  We had tickets in the Bill Shankly Kop which is the away end behind one of the goals.  It's an all-seater single-tiered stand with good views from towards the front of the stand and comfortable leg room

To the left of the Bill Shankly Kop is the Invincibles Pavillion.  This stand has been redeveloped since my last visit to Deepdale and is a single-tiered all-seater stand with executive boxes at its rear.  It is the main stand at Deepdale and houses the team dug-outs at its front.  Opposite the Bill Shankly Kop is the Alan Kelly Town End another single-tiered all-seater stand where the most vociferous home fans tend to congregate.  To the right of the Bill Shankly Kop is the Sir Tom Finney stand, is a large single-tiered all-seater stand.  

Reading took the lead early in the first-half after a brilliant passing move involving Ovie Ejaria, Charlie Adam and Tyler Blackett culminated in John Swift sweeping home a pin-point finish from ten yards.  The lead was doubled less than ten minutes later when Blackett seized upon a loose pass in midfield and played a neat one-two with Ejaria before playing in Lucas Joao who fired in from 12 yards.  Joao thought he had a second later in the half but was flagged offside after Ejaria's long range effort cannoned back off the post.

Preston pushed for a way back into the game in the second-half but were unable to find a way passed Rafael Cabral in the Reading goal who was in inspired form and pulled off a number of good saves. 

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was ok.  The home fans were pretty quiet after falling behind so early into the game and although they rallied in the second-half never really got too loud.  The atmosphere in the away end was pretty good for exactly the same reason, going ahead early in the game meant the away fans were in good voice throughout and all the way home on the coach!

Journey Time home: 4 hours 30 minutes.  The coach left Deepdale at 5:15pm and after a short stop at Warwick Services on the way home dropped us off in town at 9:30pm.  We had a short walk home from town and arrived just after 9:45pm in time to get ready for work the next day!

I really enjoyed my trip up to Preston, much more than my first visit!  It seems the result makes all the difference!  The ground is great and Reading played really well against a team currently in the play-off positions.  After a decent run over Christmas it looks like we may be in a position to push for a late run at the play-off, particularly if we continue to play with the same confidence we have displayed recently.