Newcastle 0 - 7 preston (390102889)

9895 fans braved the pouring rain at Newcastle United FC Arena. Berti Trinder was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Massimo Zingaretti and Edwin Mcduffie. Newcastle started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. Starters: Henderson - Gaster, Storey, Maskell, Rogers - Charles, Garbe, Herwig, Watkins - Mulligan, Trudgian.

preston tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. They fielded: Ziegler - Hayden, Golonka, Azzato - Birch, Ezmir, Vígh, Bech Jørgensen - Tekhovi, Nasi, Thorpe.

preston used their ability to concentrate their attacks in the middle of the pitch, rather than on the wings. preston's M. Tekhovi gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead after 7 minutes with a superb strike from the right. J. Rogers was struggling to make the ball dance with his usual trickery and panache, and the opposing players had little trouble shutting him down in these muddy conditions. M. Tekhovi, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass. The visitors added to their lead 34 minutes into the game, after a sensational penalty kick by preston's L. Ezmir slid just past the home keeper. 0 - 2. Some fine movement on the left led to a preston goal after 37 minutes, making it 0 - 3. T. Bech Jørgensen was noted down as the scorer. preston increased their lead after 38 minutes when M. Nasi broke through on the right, upping the score to 0 - 4, much to the home crowd's dismay. J. Mulligan of Newcastle was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. 0 - 4 was the halftime score. preston enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 86 percent of possession.

After 47 minutes of game time, B. Birch had an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors' lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but J. Henderson was in the right place and tipped the ball over for a corner. Had it not been for one of the home defenders, T. Bech Jørgensen would have put preston up another goal 51 minutes into the match with his audacious lob from the right wing. preston's F. Ziegler had to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines, after twisting his ankle with 61 minutes having been played. T. Afentoulidis was the replacement. After 62 minutes, preston's M. Nasi burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 5. After this, you could see that the players of preston were more interested in killing time than scoring more goals. P. Vígh received a delicate pass through the home side's central defence after 81 minutes, and chipped it past the flailing keeper to score making it 0 - 6. The preston fans went wild, whilst the home fans started to think about leaving early. After 82 minutes, an incisive pass through the middle gave D. Hayden a chance to increase the lead for preston, and he did not disappoint. The score was then 0 - 7. Newcastle had to make a substitution after 84 minutes. D. Watkins limped off the field and was replaced by A. Allen. R. Gaster was the new captain of Newcastle - handed the armband by the departing player. preston claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 87 percent.

The most dominating Newcastle player was without a doubt N. Charles. D. Maskell turned in a dismal performance, however. preston's best player was L. Ezmir. On the other hand, T. Afentoulidis's play was disheartening. The match ends 0 - 7.