Marked for Andre Dozzell
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Preston this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali McCann, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andre Dozzell dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Preston training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Yannick Woudstra changes it off the bench
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Player ratings
Ali McCann spends the afternoon fouling
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Sep 2026
Preston march on in the cup
Tranmere Rovers are out and Preston go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match16 Sep 2026
Preston win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 102th minute. Tranmere Rovers will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Preston — 7.37
1 for Damián González Hernández, marked 7.37, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Daniel Iversen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ali McCann falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Brad Potts was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daniel Iversen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Diego Renan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
Shay Reid wants to come home
“I did not go to Wycombe Wanderers to sit and watch. I want to come back to Preston and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Andre Dozzell dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Andre Dozzell knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Preston, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Robbie Brady yet — 8.18
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Preston training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Iversen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Diego Renan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Preston this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Charlton Athletic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jordan Storey
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Preston
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Andre Dozzell gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andre Dozzell has just signed for Preston, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Iversen commits to Preston for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Preston this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Callum Lang
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.