From orange to Lilywhite – The challenge facing Phil Brown

Phil Brown worked wonders at Hull City, transforming them from Championship relegation battlers and steering them to promotion to the top flight for the first time in their 104-year history – all inside 18 months.  He was dismissed as Tigers boss after two seasons at the top table ended with relegation and returned to football in January with Preston North End, tasked with keeping the Lilywhites in the division.  James McMath looks at why the job at Deepdale will be Brown’s biggest test.

Phil Brown knows time is not on his side.

In the post-match press conference, after Preston’s 1-0 defeat by his former club Hull, the 51-year-old was asked how keeping North End in the division would compare to his success at the KC Stadium. Brown said: “This will rank a lot higher than Hull City because I had more time to turn it around and put my team into place.”

It’s difficult to argue. Brown took over at Hull as caretaker manager when Phil Parkinson was sacked in December 2006, having being appointed first-team coach two months earlier.

The Tigers were 22^nd at the time but his installation as manager galvanised a disillusioned team and they duly climbed out of the bottom three. It was enough to get him the job on a full-time basis.

Recruitment drive

That time he spent as caretaker proved vital as, although his appointment full time came on January 4, he had enjoyed opportunity to analyse his players and make the necessary adjustments in the transfer window. He recruited well and, the following season, the Tigers won the play-offs to reach the Promised Land.

Time is a luxury Brown did not have at Preston, whom he joined on January 6 this year. With North End rooted to the bottom of the table, Brown had little scope to get to know the strengths and, so it seems, many weaknesses of his staff. He is almost certainly still going through that process.

His only permanent signing in January was that of Ian Ashbee, the holding midfielder who captained Brown’s Tigers side to glory in 2008. Brown has also added on loan Eddie Johnson, Nathan Ellington and Leon Clarke. All three of those strikers started the defeat at Hull City and it was plain to see they needed time to gel. It was a toothless performance from Preston to say the least.

The 2-2 draw midweek at Watford at least proved Preston could score but, having been 2-0 up, it felt more like one step forward, two points dropped.

Time for a scrap

Nine points behind fourth-bottom Crystal Palace, Brown has it all to do. He makes no bones about the approach his team will adopt in order to survive.

“Possession wins you fuck all,” he said after that defeat at Hull. “Attitude and mentality is what we need.”

“We haven’t got enough hearts out there at the moment. We’ve got the quality to win five or six in a row but we need one to go in of someone’s backside to get us our first win.”

The R word

What will prove Brown’s biggest test is if the inevitable becomes reality and the Lilywhites depart the second tier of English football, where they have been since David Moyes led them to promotion in 2000.

Preston will struggle to keep the likes of Shaun St Ledger, Adam Barton and Andrew Lonergan, the goalkeeper who is already unhappy at being displaced by Iain Turner, another loan of Brown’s January loan signings.

Brown will be faced with the task of rebuilding a squad on a budget much tighter than the one overseen by Paul Duffen’s chairmanship at Hull City. The fact Hull City were on the brink of administration when they exited the Premier League tells its own story.

Last time Brown had to work under such constraints was in his first managerial post at Derby County, who he joined in 2005 after six years working under Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers.

Through no fault of Brown’s, Derby were in a real mess financially and his predecessor, George Burley, had raised the bar by somehow guiding the Rams to a play-off place in the previous season. As if to prove how tight the purse strings were, Brown was forced to field assistant manager Dean Holdsworth as a lone front man one more than one occasion during an injury crisis.

Brown lasted just seven months at Pride Park and to suggest a repeat failure is imminent at Deepdale would be unfair.

He will have learned a lot in the years that have passed, particularly during his time at Hull City and his ability to rouse his troops is one of his strengths  - just don’t mention that on-pitch half-time team talk at Manchester City.

If Brown cannot save North End this season then, provided he can build a team of players who buy into his way of thinking, don’t be took shocked if he adds another promotion to his CV.

James McMath can be found on Twitter.

(photo via PNEFC official website)

English Championship, Football League, Hull City, Preston North End