The Germans probably have a word to describe that feeling you get as you trudge out of a stadium following another away defeat attempting to take something positive from the game. That word will be ‘gelittenpositivsuche’ or something like that. Whatever it is, the traveling contingent of the Tiger Nation have felt it a lot this season, and they felt it again as they headed home from Deepdale.

Expectations weren’t that high coming into this game, even after the improvement shown in Tuesday’s almost-win against Luton, Preston are a decent side on a good run of form after all, but it’s safe to say we expected City to maintain parity for longer than 48 seconds. Such expectation left us feeling betrayed a mere 49 seconds into the game.

We were already bewildered by the strange sight of amber shorts being worn with striped shirts, wearing that ensemble and huddling near the centre circle for City were: Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Coles, Mills; Elliott, Delaney, Ashbee, Welsh, Fagan and; Forster. 4-5-1 then, or 4-1-4-1 as Ashbee played in front of the defence with Delaney oddly part of the midfield and Forster all on his tod up front.

The Tigers kicked off at 3pm with the 800 or so Hullensians in attendance in good voice behind them. City lost possession allowing Preston to break forward, Nugent fed Simon Whaley in the box but his shot was pitifully scuffed, and when they should have been attacking the loose ball and getting rid, our defenders elected to either fall over or watch as Daniel Dichio, a man once signed by Sampdoria on the basis of an Italian sounding surname alone, drilled the ball past Myhill. 1-0 Preston.

At 3.01pm the Tigers kicked off again, while the 800 or so Hullensians in attendance held their heads in their hands and muttered obscenities about abysmal defending. The home fans, sat to the right of us made the noise now, informing us of their belief that we are ‘going down, going down, going down’. They may be right.

City had a spell of pressure, a Danny Mills shot forced a corner after Fagan laid off the ball from Elliott’s deep cross. Forster ran at goal and was hacked down under the gaze of an unmoved referee before Elliott caused Preston’s keeper Nash some consternation as he jumped to meet Mills’ cross. Mills is pretty good at putting crosses in from the right back position, he was our main creative outlet today since we have two men on the wings who aren’t particularly adept at beating a defender and delivering a cross, so lone forward Forster depended on Mills for balls from the flanks.

Though crosses may not be his strong point, Stuart Elliott was having his finest game in some time, scampering around with the enthusiasm and self belief he last showed when we were in League One. He chased a chipped ball from Delaney and forced the hastily retreating defender to concede a corner. A typical City corner kick caused Preston little concern and they cleared with ease, Ricketts was first to the clearance and he passed to Welsh who struck a powerful shot that was just too near the keeper to truly test him.

At the other end Delaney raced back to the familiar territory of the 18 yard box to thwart Nugent who looked to strike a crossed ball from a blatantly offside colleague. City’s fans rediscovered their voice and announced themselves to be ‘Parkinson’s black and army’ for a prolonged period. Forster battled for and won the ball near the left touch line and advanced diagonally to hit a low shot that worried Nash but went just wide of the near post. The man signed from Ipswich appears to be reaching full fitness now and he is undeniably hard working, his toil might pay dividends if he had someone alongside him.

The dangerous David Nugent ghosted past Danny Coles but his shot was too tame to cause Myhill any bother this time, but Preston were building momentum, and on 36 minutes they doubled their lead. Ricketts failed to stop Whaley putting in a cross from the right, Myhill didn’t come for it, the defence dithered and Dichio took advantage to head in from close range. 2-0 to Preston and lots of Germanic words were being bellowed at this point.

The permanently angry looking Danny Mills looked even angrier than usual and taking matters into his own hands bombed forward himself and lashed a powerful shot goalward that Nash could only beat away, reacting quickly Forster headed the ball above Nash but sadly it was above the crossbar too.

Preston fans jeered ‘Dark Satanic’ Mills as he collected the ball in front of the Tom Finney stand, and hamming it up as the consummate pantomime villain he went eyeball to eyeball with a young lad who’d launched a tirade of abuse. He’s a bastard that Danny Mills, but he’s our bastard, and we could use more bastards, especially in the centre of our defence. City’s fans sang his name and assured him that his lack of hair was of no consequence to us. What was of consequence was our dismal defending, the formation didn’t please either.

Surprisingly, there were no changes made at the break. Nonetheless, as the switch was flicked to turn on the lights, so City looked brighter in the second 45. Deepdale’s floodlights are odd, overelaborate constructions, they appear to be inspired by the Martian tripods on the cover artwork of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds. The abandoned stand to our left looks like it needs to be heat rayed, that aside this is quite a nice ground, with the three other stands featuring the likenesses of former Preston greats made by varying coloured seats, meaning Tom Finney is kissing several people’s arses.

Anyway, the second half, and City were much improved. Forster tested Nash with a low drive and on 57 minutes Nash made another good save, this time from John Welsh, but he was powerless to stop Welsh’s follow up shot and we were back in the game. 2-1.

Delaney and Forster were carded before Parkinson changed things. Coles came off, replaced in person by Jon Parkin and in position by Damien Delaney as we switched to 4-4-2. The Beast played a deft through ball for Forster but he read it too late to get a shot in, still, he harried a defender enough to earn City a corner. Welsh whipped the ball in and Parkin shaped to volley the ball goalward, but Elliott jumped ahead of him to head the ball wide to the disgust of the beastly one.

France replaced Fagan in a like for like switch and Mills relished playing the easily beat down weakling to get Dichio booked (Hoho, magnificent bastard). Elliott delivered a deep cross from the left and France headed it back across goal for Welsh, who wasn’t able to get sufficiently over the ball to put it on target and header went over.

The referee angered the Tiger Nation twice within a short space of time, Danny Mills was clattered and appeared to win a free kick, until the ref signaled he’d given it to Preston. ‘Dark Satanic’ Danny made his feelings known and it earned him yet another booking. Moments later, the white shirted hoon who fouled Mills and went off ‘hurt’ was allowed back on the pitch, stepping in front of France as he took the ball up the wing. Unreal.

Mills fired in a great cross for Elliott but his header was poorly aimed when he should have put it across goal. The high octane John Welsh, relishing his chance after unjustly playing second fiddle to John Welsh since late August, ran at the Preston defence and beating two men was taken down by a third, the ref was having none of it. Welsh fired a shot way off target and it was all over, and the feeling of ‘gelittenpositivsuche’ or whatever it’s called was felt keenly once more by the traveling Tiger Nationals.

Yes, there were positives to be taken from this, the performances of Elliott, Welsh and Mills throughout for example, but with over a quarter of the season gone, positives without results just aren’t good enough anymore, and no matter how you dress it up, a defeat is a defeat.

Still, the day’s disappointment was slightly tempered by another feeling that only the Germans can define, that of ‘schadenfreude’, or pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others, those ‘others’ being Leeds, gubbed 5-1 at Luton and just a point ahead of us in the table. (LM)