Opinion: Preston North End have sleepwalked into genuine relegation peril

At the end of March, Preston North End were on the brink of something unlikely and amazing. At the end of April, that’s true once again.

As Aston Villa roll into Wembley for their semi-final-that-could-have-been with Crystal Palace, PNE are losing at home to rock-bottom Plymouth. Ryan Lowe’s former home. A team who entered the day with as slim a hope of survival as North End had of relegation.

When the Aston Villa result happened, which was absolutely no shame on anybody looking at what they did to PSG the other week, the big exhale was that of another season over. When we said we hoped the team wouldn’t be playing with flip-flops on, it was with having to watch more dead rubbers in mind, not the threat of relegation.

Instead, for the first time in years, North End’s season goes down to the final weekend. That bloke from The Guardian who won’t visit Preston again for another decade was always wrong, but we didn’t have to try this hard to prove it. If North End do go down, it would be as miraculous as the time we beat Cardiff 6-0 then slipped into the play-offs on goal difference at their expense. But cursed, instead.

There are a number of people who shouldn’t escape their share of the responsibility whatever happens.

Peter Ridsdale, as ever, will be in the firing line. Ultimately there are few more senior than him at the club and he surely wouldn’t shirk any responsibility if relegation does happen. He contributes significantly to the manager appointments, he helps deliver the signings, he makes a lot of decisions at the club. The owners, too, will be in the firing line – even if their money is what keeps the club operational.

But Paul Heckingbottom does not walk away clean. He’s been granted a lot of leeway from the Preston North End fanbase, delighted to have someone in the hotseat who looks and sounds like he belongs, and dealt the bad hand of his predecessor flouncing out of the club after one game. But you can’t hide from this sort of form, not when that predecessor, so polarising, managed top half finishes. What response would Ryan Lowe have received for this run of results?

A number of players have been in for criticism at various points in the season. Emil Riis made it clear he wasn’t signing a new deal some time ago, but has been relied upon despite his intentions to not be here. Ben Whiteman has been accused of hiding, but doesn’t really appear to be the problem. Injuries have played their part – but it’s not like Freddie Woodman was adored in the stands. In all instances, you wonder how much the atmosphere at Deepdale has affected nerves, performances and overall motivation. They’re humans, even if well-paid humans.

But whatever happens on the final weekend, North End have dropped off alarmingly. That’s happened with regularity as seasons fizzled away but could always be dismissed as having nothing to play for. After the defeat to QPR, the manager said he’d happily drop a bomb under the lot and start again, in reference to his squad. If he expected a reaction, he didn’t get it in damaging defeats against Hull City and Plymouth that have left relegation a real and genuine threat. Try convincing anyone other than Adam Salisbury I shouldn’t have written ‘likelihood’ there. If it sounds dramatic, it’s how it feels. Like the opposite of a last-minute Mark Rankine goal to take it to extra time. If Hecky is to decide this isn’t the challenge for him after all at the end of the season, as some fans speculate, he should do so with the expectation that his next role might be trickier to come by.

Bristol City away on the final day and it’s a brave man who puts anything on points coming back up the M5/M6 combo. I started writing this at half-time, so little faith did I have in anything changing. The hope now isn’t so much that Paul Heckingbottom can get them going but that Derby or Luton or Hull will conspire to be worse on the day. And if he is the man to lead the club forwards, let him stick that bomb under it.

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