Player Ratings: Preston North End vs. Brentford

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Another home game and another win. 12 points from 12 available at home in the league this season. For those (and there was a fair few of us, myself included) who wanted to see better home form, there’s not a lot more we could have asked for in the opening weeks of the season.

4 league games played, 4 league games won. 10 goals scored and only 2 conceded. We’ve scored the most home goals in the league this season and we’re the only side with a 100% home record in the Championship thus far this season. Another thing that yesterday showed was just how tactically fantastic Alex Neil is. However, that’s a discussion for another time or podcast episode. For now, here’s our player ratings from yesterday’s 2-0 victory over Brentford.

Declan Rudd

A steady performance from the much-improved number 1. Other than the Millwall game, he hasn’t really put a glove wrong yet this season and Saturday’s game was another one that he didn’t really look troubled and got another clean sheet against his name.

He was called into action in the first half after a rasping shot from Benrahma moved a fair bit in the air but he got 2 big strong fists behind it and kept it out.

Rating – 7

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Darnell Fisher

Fish was good yesterday. Steady as ever. Came narrow when he needed to and pushed high when he needed to. No frills, good game and a clean sheet. He’s come back from his injury and played well thus far.

Rating – 7

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Patrick Bauer

A well-deserved man of the match yesterday for the big German. He was simply brilliant. Won almost everything in the air and was his usual cool, calm and collected self on the ball.

Rating – 8

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Ben Davies

Like his German partner, Ben was exceptional. I honestly can’t really write too much about him. He’s forming a brilliant partnership with Patrick Bauer and considering they cost us nothing in outgoing transfer fees, what’s not to love?

Rating – 8

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Joe Rafferty

Another solid enough performance from Raf. Solid enough but I think one of his weakest for us. He got beaten a few times by balls in-behind but considering left-back isn’t actually his position, he can be forgiven.

Rating – 6

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Ryan Ledson

Did an admirable job filling in for Ben Pearson. Ryan showed that he has more in his locker than just ratting around and breaking up play. He was firing diagonal balls around with accuracy and got his first assist of the season when he picked out Seani Maguire with a pinpoint ball into his path for the opening goal of the game.

Rating – 7

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Alan Browne

On the back of playing for Ireland in the week, Browney was as industrious as ever. He was up and down all afternoon and his energy in the middle was key. Good to see him back in the middle of the park too after admirably filling in at right back.

Rating – 7

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Daniel Johnson

A somewhat quiet performance from DJ for me. However, he can’t be expected to score or assist a goal every game. Steady away.

Rating – 6

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Billy Bodin

Not at his best in this one. He had his moments but for the most part, he didn’t really affect the game too much. He’ll have better games in Lilywhite.

Rating – 6

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Tom Barkhuizen

Pace, desire, energy and a simple finish pretty much sum up Barky’s afternoon. He was full of energy and buzzing about giving Thomas Frank’s back 3 a bit of a headache all afternoon. You could see they were worried about his pace in behind and he got the goal in the 70th minute to mark his performance. Well deserved.

Rating – 7

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Sean Maguire

Brilliant again. I was never his biggest critic when he played up top on his own but since he’s been playing off the left, he’s been superb. He’s now scored two goals this season and even though winning a penalty (for some reason) doesn’t count as an assist, I’m going to give him 2 assists too. He’s now contributed a goal every 112.5 minutes this season for us if you include those two penalty wins.

Rating – 8

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Substitutes

Paul Gallagher

He was brilliant for the 35 minutes he was on for. A calming influence and got about the pitch. Just another performance, albeit a shorter one, in which Gally demonstrated what a classy player he is.

Rating – 7

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Josh Harrop

Showed plenty of positives in his short time on the pitch. He looks full of confidence and ready to take this season by the scruff of the neck.

Rating – 6

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Brad Potts

Pottsy, who is getting back to match fitness himself, came on for the just returned from injury, Tom Barkhuizen. He didn’t give the full-back a minute’s peace. A few more games like that building his fitness up and he’ll start to give the manager something to think about.

Rating – 6

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