Waited till tonight's fixtures before doing this.
A pleasing win vs Middlesbrough made for a pleasant warm glow.
An on paper very difficult fixture came through in pretty decent style.
Saturday will be a totally different test and in a strange way every bit as tricky.
An away fixture vs a side happy to sit back and be physical, on numerous occasions this has given us plenty of issues.
It is Preston at Deepdale and the return of Paul Heckingbottom.
A very early season appointment for the former promotion winner has seen a rather interesting season for Preston.
21 games under Hecky
5 defeats
5 wins
11 draws
26 scored
25 conceded, 4 in the cup vs prem opposition
They don't win many but as you can see, they don't lose many at all.
Have only lost 1 more league game than us since Hecky took over, and at home they have lost just once, same as us at Elland Road.
The obvious issue they have is they don't win enough to realistically progress too far up the table, but I'd imagine they aren't expected to and Hecky will be seen as doing a decent job.
In terms of eye catching results they aren't short.
Draw vs Boro, Blackburn, Burnley, Sunderland, WBA and Premier League Fulham as well as a win vs Watford.
However when they lose they tend to concede, 3 to Bristol City, Portsmouth, Millwall and Oxford.
In terms of tactics Hecky is a devoted disciple of Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff . . . . Ok he isn't.
It's as you'd expect.
They operate with a back 3 which often turns into a back 5 out of possession.
Width is provided by the wing backs as Hecky favours a two number 10 type formation behind a lone striker.
The 2 cms are generally holding midfielders, they don't provide much in the way of attacking threat as Hecky prefers to keep the centre of the pitch solid.
But they are a defensively solid hard to break down side who make life difficult.
They don't press, they will not care if Rodon and Struijk have the ball and exchange passes for 30 minutes, they won't move from the set defensive shape.
They keep it narrow, crowd the midfield and keep it tight and try and force teams down the outside and back themselves to deal with crosses.
They favour a long passing game offensively, lots of switches of play and passes into the channels.
Most long passes per game in the league, most fouls, most yellow cards and most red cards.
You get the idea.
If they attack its direct and they are very physical.
In terms of key players they are guaranteed to be missing an important one.
Leeds United loanee Sam Greenwood has become a vital player for Preston behind the main striker.
He has 4 goals and 2 assists and his set piece delivery is a key part of the arsenal.
He also plays a key part off the ball with his defensive contribution.
Unfortunately for Preston he is only on loan and is unable to play vs us.
The other key player to name would be striker Emil Riis Jakobsen, a big strong striker with 5 goals and 2 assists this season.
So they are a physical and resilient side who are one of the best teams in the league at frustrating so called better more expensive and talented teams.
But when they concede and lose they tend to do so by quite a few goals.
You suspect that 1st goal is key, score a goal and they have no choice but to push out.
For us then.
The usual questions on selection and such.
Amps?
Ramazani?
Piroe?
Bogle?
In a way Preston are our kryptonite.
A team who won't press much, certainly not in our half.
Who are quite happy for teams to go down the outside and keep it very compact in the centre of the pitch for that reason to limit space.
So we play extremely narrow in attack at times, we aren't a crossing team so it's going to be extremely tricky to create you suspect.
It's a potential banana skin.
Could DF do anything differently? More width? That sort of thing.
