North End Throngs Premier's Fantasy Dream Team!
BBC Radio Lancashire's Andy Bayes takes a look at Preston North End's downward spiral and why it's got boss Paul Heckingbottom talking about survival.
[Shutterstock] In the space of 12 league matches, Preston North End have dropped 13 places in the Championship. It's about as dramatic a fall from grace as you're likely to see. They were three points off the automatic promotion places on 4 January with a 19-point buffer between themselves and the relegation spots.
The numbers are alarmingly different 69 days later. They are now 21 points adrift of second-placed Middlesbrough, 11 off the play-offs and 10 from the bottom three. The 2-0 win at Bristol City 12 games ago felt like a big moment.
A vocal away support singing their heroes home, with a manager growing in popularity game by game. Speaking to the Lancashire Post in his after-match interview at Norwich on Saturday, Paul Heckingbottom was clear in his opinion that staying in the Championship wasn't a foregone conclusion. He pinpointed a dramatic drop-off last season, where North End won only once in the league after the victory at Norwich on 11 February, as a case in point.
The final day survival last season should have been a wake-up call, and for a while it looked like it had been. Granted, the squad has undergone significant change, but since they won at Norwich 13 months ago, they've played 53 league matches, and they haven't won 40 of them. Draws have been an Achilles heel in both seasons, but in the last four games a draw has looked far from likely.