City are on the road again against one of their play-off rivals on Tuesday night
Preston’s Deepdale pitch is not in the best condition(Image: Mike Morese/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Dean Holden says Hull City must be aware of the challenges that the difficult Deepdale playing surface will pose when the Tigers face Preston North End on Tuesday night.
Lillywhites boss Paul Heckingbottom admitted the pitch was a concern after their 1-0 home defeat to Derby County on Saturday, and it will be again when sixth plays fifth in the race for promotion.
City will arrive at Deepdale in good heart, having eased to a deserved 2-1 win at Southampton on Saturday. Away from home, the Tigers haven’t lost since early November, winning four and drawing one of their last five, and will cement their place in the top six should they record a rare win at Deepdale.
“We expect the game to pan out completely differently. We’ve just got to make sure we’re ready for the next challenge,” Holden told Hull Live.
“The pitch is obviously something we need to be aware of, so that might tie into the game a little bit, but we expect a really tough game.”
North End may have lost last time out and at home to Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup, but won 2-0 at Bristol City and beat Sheffield Wednesday without conceding in the two previous league outings, and remain firmly in the play-off race.
“They’ve got a strong way of playing with three really good midfielders.” City’s assistant boss continued. “(Ben (Whiteman) wants to dictate the game, but physically can control it as well, so we need to stop him at source. They’ve got (Alfie) Devine and four good strikers.
“You need to be right on your game in terms of second balls. You need to control the right areas. We might have to play slightly differently in the attacking phase to hurt Preston than we did against Southampton, but we’re not going to copy Derby’s gameplan (Derby won 1-0 on Saturday), we wouldn’t do that. We can’t anyway.
“We certainly know where their weakness is, it’s making sure the players are aware of that and that they execute the gameplan. The adaptability, the refusal to fall back on excuses with injuries biting, requires tough characters.
“They pull each other up, they make sure the standards are high. If someone drops below their standards more often than not, the players nail it themselves.”
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