Alex Neil’s men continued their fine run of form at home this season with a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Grant McCann’s Hull City on Tuesday night under the lights at Deepdale. A game that finished 2-2 in 95 minutes saw the 22 players on the pitch head into a penalty shootout at full time.
Goals from Paul Huntington and Josh Harrop gave North End a 2-0 lead inside the opening 30 minutes before a Josh Magennis penalty would give Hull City something to play for in the second half of the tie. Despite a Jarrod Bowen equaliser in the 95th minute, North End saw themselves through to Round 3 of the Carabao Cup after coming out of the penalty shootout 5-4 winners. Anyway, here’s how we rated the players on their 90-minute performance. Penalties had no bearing on our final decision:
Connor Ripley
Solid performance from Ripper. In the second half especially he made a few decent saves to keep our 2-1 lead intact after much pressure from Hull City. He also got down well to save Tom Eaves’ tame penalty which ultimately saw us through to round 3.
Rating – 7
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Alan Browne
It’s tough for Alan at the minute as he seems a little bit out of form and out of favour but tonight, he was solid if uninspiring. He was given a job to do by the gaffer and did it well whilst wearing the captain’s armband and also despite playing out of position.
Rating – 6
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Jordan Storey
Young Jordan was cool, calm and collected tonight. He showed last season that he is more than capable of playing at this level and he reiterated that again tonight. A commanding, strong performance from the 21-year old in a game in which he came up a fair bit of pace in the Hull City attack. He was everywhere tonight, an excellent performance.
Rating – 7
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Paul Huntington
After some time out with an injury, Hunts was back in the XI tonight. He was very solid and set his stall out early on with a brilliant double challenge to halt a Hull City attack on the edge of the North End box. Then in the 20th minute he rose the highest to meet a Josh Harrop free-kick and head past the Hull goalkeeper, Matt Ingram to put us into a 1-0 lead.
Rating – 7
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Josh Ginnelly
Playing in a hugely unfamiliar role, Ginnelly was unspectacularly solid at left-back. He showed a good turn of pace when playing out at the back and also defended quite well whilst clearly not being a proper full-back. He struggled a bit more when Jarrod Bowen was brought on the pitch but didn’t do himself any harm.
Rating – 6
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Ryan Ledson
At times in the first half, Ryan looked like a one-man midfield. He was brilliant and caused the Hull defence with some of his lofted balls in over the top. He was also breaking up play really well and found himself all over the pitch, especially in the first half.
Rating – 7
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Tom Bayliss
Making his home debut tonight, Bayliss did well. Much like the rest of the XI, he performed well in the first half but will undoubtedly be happy to get 90 minutes under his belt at Deepdale. He showed what he is about in flashes though, threading a few passes through for the wide players to run onto. Plenty more to come from him without a doubt.
Rating – 6
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Brad Potts
An odd performance from Pottsy tonight. Was pretty much full of running, as usual, but you could argue we’ve come to expect that from him now. It was the rest of his play that seemed to draw questions. He looked lethargic and often like he was a bit behind the play. To be honest, he just didn’t look fit or up to a full 90-minutes.
Rating – 6
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Josh Harrop
Without a doubt, he was the man of the match. His evening started off with him “in the hole” behind the forward in the first half, Tom Barkhuizen and he got himself an assist on the board early doors. He fired a free-kick into the box which found Paul Huntington who fired past the Hull keeper. 6 minutes later, he had a goal himself. His run began from inside his own half and when Barky’s shot came back into the box after hitting the Hull keeper, he was in the right place, at the right time to slot home North End’s second.
Rating – 8
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Andre Green
He wasn’t bad but he also wasn’t great either. He’ll have better games in a North End shirt that’s without a doubt. It feels almost like he’s not quite up to just how Alex Neil wants him to play. Green did show some tidy touches in the time he was on the pitch though.
Rating – 6
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Tom Barkhuizen
Barky caused the Hull defence some issues in the first 45 minutes that he was on the pitch. His pace, tenacity and drive essentially helped us to the 2nd goal of the game with Harrop finishing neatly from a rebounded shot. A shame that he is now injured and had to go off at half time. The game changed when didn’t come back out to play the 2nd 45 minutes.
Rating – 6
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Substitutes
Joe Rafferty
Without a doubt, Raff was the best of the 3 substitutes to come on during the game. He’s been steady since stepping in as cover for the injured Andrew Hughes and he was introduced to try and provide Jarod Bowen something different to think about. Another solid performance from the bench for Joe.
Rating – 6
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Billy Bodin
An odd substitution was this one. He didn’t really impact the game in a way that many fans thought he would do but to be fair, we were defending with our backs to the wall so he was more than likely brought on as an outlet.
Rating – 5
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Jayden Stockley
The less said about Jayden’s performance, the better to be honest. He lost possession 21 times in 45 minutes tonight and only completed 5 passes. Simply put, he was NOT good enough.
Rating – 4
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