Published: Friday, 17th October, 2008 13:00
Voyage into the Deep-dale
By Anthony Smith
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Unknown territory: Ivar Ingimarsson is not sure what to expect from Preston at Deepdale.
IVAR Ingimarsson is warning that Preston’s topsy-turvy start to the season makes Saturday’s trip to Deepdale something of a journey into the unknown (3pm ko).
North End got off to their best start in more than 20 years but they hit the buffers and have now lost their last four Championship games on the trot.
Boss Alan Irvine’s also saw his previously water-tight defence leak 10 goals in that straight run of losses to Wolves, Burnley, Swansea and Watford.
And now they face a Reading side who are the leading goalscorers in the country and who won 3-0 at the then leaders Wolves in their last away outing.
Not surprisingly, the two clubs have been working to very different agendas over the fortnight’s international break. While Royals boss Steve Coppell gave every player not on duty time off to rest and recover, Irvine ordered his troops in for extra training in a bid to eradicate their mistakes.
Ingimarsson said: “You don’t know if the run Preston are on is a good or bad thing. I suppose it could be a good time to play them because their confidence must be low. But, if you have lost four in a row, you will be very, very determined to end that run and make sure it doesn’t be come five.
“We were thinking along those lines about our away form before we won at Wolves. Now I’m sure people up in Preston will be talking about their results.
“But you never know what will happen until the day itself. There is an element of the unknown about the game and we must prepare for anything.
“However, I will say that all teams go on bad runs - it’s how consistent you are over the 46 games that counts.”
Reading had picked up just two points from 12 on the road before that emphatic victory at Molineux at the end of last month.
It was their first win away from home in the league this season and Ingimarsson is determined to capitalise on the result.
“We won at Wolves when they were on top but that will count for nothing it we don’t follow it through by getting another good result at Preston,” he declared.
“It will also give the media something else to talk about. But seriously, we didn’t want to dwell on our record for too long and it was good to prove to people, and to ourselves, that we could win away from home. Now we know - there is no spell on us.”
Royals boss Steve Coppell will have his full squad together for just two days following the international break. And, once again, they face another long haul immediately afterwards with a near 500-mile round-trip to Lancashire awaiting them.
But Ingimarsson insisted: “It’s not a problem for us, we’re used to it by now. Those on international duty will be playing and training to keep fit while those not involved generally have a few days’ off to rest and recover.
“We’ve had a busy schedule of Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday football and we have another one ahead of us. So taking it easy for a while at this stage can definitely be a good thing.
“We do most of our technical work and hold our meetings towards the end of a week anyway so people won’t miss much.”
Royals lost 2-0 at Ipswich Town after the previous break and last season they suffered Premier League defeats at Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn,. Manchester City and Everton in similar circumstances.
However, Ingimarsson stressed: “It’s true that playing away after a break can be difficult because of the extra travelling.
“We’ve had some long trips recently. Last time it was Ipswich and we have bad memories of that. But you just have to think it happens randomly and we have to deal with it.
“We don’t want to use any excuses and we certainly don’t want to be looking for them before a game because we believe we are a strong enough team to come through these tests. We should be well enough equipped to cope.”
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