Tag: David Nugent

Big Interview: David Nugent 9th May 2005

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For Preston North End’s young striker David Nugent it has been a whirlwind 2005. Few had even heard of the chirpy scouser when he arrived on Deepdale’s doorstep in a £100,000 move from Bury at the start of January. He’d scored 13 goals for the Shakers but that’s all we really knew, four months on, the people of Preston can’t stop talking about their latest hero.

The matchday programme caught up with Nugent earlier this week to talk about his rise to stardom.

“I came here looking to get in the starting eleven,” is Nugent’s honest appraisal of his targets upon first arriving at Deepdale.

“I have done that and now we are in the play-offs so I am delighted to be in the play-offs. We have got Derby today, it should be a tough game, as we saw last weekend they are a good side but hopefully we can come through it.”

Nugent only played a bit part role in last week’s trip to Pride Park as North End boss Billy Davies chose to rest some of his key players. The fact that Rams boss George Burley only caught a fleeting glimpse of the youngster could mean that the PNE No.35 could be a secret weapon this afternoon, Nugent agrees that Billy’s cautious approach last week could be a tactical masterstroke.

It will be weird, to playing the same team three times on the bounce will be strange but that will happen sometimes in the play-offs and you just have to cope with it.

He said: “The Gaffer rested a few players last week like Brian O’Neil, the skipper Chris Lucketti and myself but players came in and did well. The Gaffer is not interested if you play home or away, he is confident that we can play well at home and away and that is the way that he wants it.

“Derby are beatable, we controlled the game for the first 25 minutes, they got a free-kick which they have taken early and it has gone in. It is a sucker punch just before half-time and when the second goal goes in you know that it is lost really. We tried a few changes to try and get back into the game, we have done that and then we lost Graham Alexander through an injury and that put us down to 10 men, they got a third and then it was definitely over. But we have got a lot of players to come back and hopefully we can beat them this weekend.

“It is a good thing that we rested a few key players, they won’t know what to expect this week when we play them when the players come back in. They will be confident that they can do us again but with more players coming in it will be a totally different game.

“It will be weird, to playing the same team three times on the bounce will be strange but that will happen sometimes in the play-offs and you just have to cope with it.”

Nugent has already paid much of the small fee that the Lilywhites sent down to Gigg Lane earlier this year. His eight goals in North End colours have helped catapult PNE into the play-off zone. And it’s not as if the strikes have been tap-ins, some of them have been worth the admission fee alone and made the youngster a fans favourite. Nugent is a firm believer that the fans can play a huge part in North End’s destiny this season and that they are currently on form!

“The fans can play a massive part,” said the striker.

“They have a huge influence on us, when they get behind us we seem to play better, hopefully they will get behind us on Sunday and hopefully we can do it for them.

“They come away from home as well to cheer us on. It is great for the fans and us when we get the fans behind us away especially with the home crowd trying to get on top of us, our fans seem to be getting on top of their fans at the moment even if there are less of them. If we do that again next week then it will be great.”

Whatever happens over the next few days, for Nugent the 2004/05 season will be remembered as the one where the young lad from Merseyside really announced himself to a the footballing nation, he could be representing that nation in the Toulon Tournament come the start of June, however he would prefer it if he was playing in a tournament otherwise known as the Premiership.

“It has been a massive month for me, I’ve been scoring goals for Preston and then I got the call-up for the Under-20s and then getting into the play-offs.

“It has been a great season for me, I just want to get into the Premiership now with Preston, if not then there is always next year but we are in the frame of mind that we want to go up this year.”

Lawro’s Column: 14th February 2005

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marklawrenson
Since we got on the first page of Ceefax in terms if the Championship table it has been like playing at altitude.

I’m one of those people who is quite frightened to talk Preston now because we keep winning don’t we!

The game against QPR last week was a big result. The fact that we went one down and still came back to win.

I think it was excellent, Billy changed it at half-time and what he did obviously worked. Nugent scored his first goal and that is going to be good news as well.

The other thing as well is that we are showing really good character, when you are playing well and you are in a good run of form, where as in the past at one down we have probably gone and lost two or three nil, now we haven’t seen it as a big problem and we say ‘we are one down let’s keep going and try and turn it around’. We have a mental strength more than anything to turn it around so that is a good thing and I would have thought in the minds of the players at the moment it doesn’t matter who we play against.

The players will already be full of confidence, it is impossible not to be full of confidence when you keep winning. From that point of view Billy is probably going to say that we have got into the play-off position, we have got to keep going. We have done the easy bit which is get ourselves in there, now it is so so important just to stay in there by hook or by crook.

We know how open the league is and we know that all the teams in the top ten are going to have to play each other between now and the end of the season so they are gong to be taking points off each other. It is just important for us if we can maintain our home form and keep picking points up away from home, that should, in theory, be enough to keep us in there.

It was good to see Chris Lucketti grab the winner again last weekend. You can never score enough goals from different areas. You look at every successful team, take the best team in the Premiership, John Terry must have six to eight goals this season. It just needs a contribution from so many different people, yes of course you want the strikers to score but if your midfielders are chipping in and your defenders are chipping in, what it does in the end is it turns draws into wins and you have three points rather than one which is why, on this good run, we are where we are.

Young Nugent got his first goal for the club at Loftus Road and I am keeping a close eye on him. At the moment it is all brand new, it is a different division, it is a different club, what we have seen so far we have liked. It is just important he continues that progression. Actually coming on and changing a game is easier than starting because it is a completely different mindset when you have to start. He has shown he can do it and if he keeps knocking at the door like that then they are going to start him sooner or later.

Ipswich Town are the opposition and I have tremendous amount of respect for their boss Joe Royle. I think every time he has had a team in this division they have got promoted. I honestly believe that he is the best manager for this division that there is, I’m not being disrespectful he has obviously been a good manager in the Premier League with Everton. What I’m saying is that when he gets jobs at this level he finds strikers, he plays a really good way, his teams always score goals, they play attacking football and I think that his team are easily the best team in this league, easily, and that includes Wigan and Sunderland, I think Joe’s team are the best.

This is the acid test for us, if we can get a result against Ipswich, the best team in the league, that would just rubber stamp it and from there we are asking why can’t North End get promotion from the play-offs?

You would hope that tonight’s match would be a good one but our record on Sky is not great. I know that we beat Cardiff away but we bombed against Sheffield United, I feel that us playing at home we owe the audience one don’t we. The thing is we don’t have to change, just because we are playing against the top team, we just have to keep playing the way we have played over the last nine games.

The people of Preston will be getting excited about the league position and we just need to continue what we are doing. We are a long way away from the automatic spots, not just in terms of the points but also in terms of the number of games you would have to win just to get there and that’s assuming that teams like Ipswich, Wigan and Sunderland are going to lose. We don’t really want to be noticed do we? We just want to keep playing, keep getting the points, let everyone talk about Ipswich, Wigan and Sunderland and we will just keep along nicely thank-you very much.

It was good to see the North End fans travelling down to Loftus Road in their numbers and I think we will get a really good gate on Friday night because it is the best team in the league and we are playing really well.

It’s the classic thing, if you are winning and you are playing good football and scoring goals then the crowds will come because that is what they want, they want to support a winning team and they want to be entertained and if they don’t then there is something wrong.

Programme Notes: Billy Davies 14th February 2005

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Leicester City v Preston North End


Preston North End boss Billy Davies’ programme notes ahead of the game against Ipswich Town.

Good evening and welcome to Deepdale.

A fortnight ago when I wrote my programme notes prior to the Coventry City game we were sitting just outside of a play-off position and looking forward to a couple of tough encounters against two very physical sides in Coventry and QPR.

We started off at home against Micky Adams’ side who are fighting for every point at the bottom of the Championship table, they got at us right from the start and scored an early goal which really set us back. But we got back into the game and just after half-time Chris Lucketti scored what proved to be a crucial goal.

The skipper has been excellent this season and on more than one occasion he has shown why we rewarded him with a new contract, he paid back a massive part of that last weekend when he was in the right place at the right time to score the winner in a frenetic afternoon’s play at Loftus Road.

There is no escaping the fact that I had one or two choice words to say to the players after what was a disappointing first 45 minutes against Queens Park Rangers. But tremendous credit to the boys, the second half we got back into the game playing football the way we have become accustomed to over the past weeks and months.

I was really pleased to see David Nugent get his first goal for the club. We have seen in training and in reserve games what a talent he is for someone so young and I warned the press that Nugent would get his chance eventually and that he would probably take it. He took his chance like all poachers should and it got us back into the game at a crucial time.

The most pleasing aspect of the past two games has been the spirit and resilience that the boys have shown in coming from a goal behind in both games. Obviously I would prefer that we didn’t concede early goals but the attitude from our players has been exemplary and on each occasion they have had to show a willingness to fight to get back into the game.

With so many teams battling for position as the season draws to an end I expect to see more and more teams scrapping for everything on the pitch and it is important that our mental attitude is spot on going into an important period for this football club.

The one final bonus to come from last week was the return to action of Paul McKenna. The initial analysis on Kenna’s broken hand was that he would be out of action for at least three weeks so I have to say how pleased I was that Paul reported for duty and made himself available so early. I have already emphasised how important Paul is to the PNE side and I think he showed that when he came on last week.

This evening we are playing host to an Ipswich Town side who rightly sit at the top of the Championship table.

Joe Royle’s team have probably been one of our toughest opponents this season and they gave us little change when we travelled down to Portman Road earlier this season.

Joe has got his side playing football the way he likes it and more importantly he has got them doing it on a consistent basis.

He has a got a team who work very hard for each other and in Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi he has a strikeforce the envy of many a manager outside of the Premiership.

Joe has managed to strengthen the side well over the past couple of years and brought in some good players, and I know that he has got an eye for a good player as I am led to believe that he once tried to sign me when I was a player at Rangers!

Tonight’s match will be played live in front of a national audience for the Sky TV cameras and not only is this an excellent chance for the Preston North End players to show what they can do but it is also a great chance for the fans to show how proud they are of this famous football club.

We took an impressive support down to Loftus Road last week and I am sure that The Gentry and the rest of the boys will be on form tonight to cheer the lads on.

Be loud, be proud and enjoy the game.