Dave Seddon's big match verdict from Deepdale

Sean Maguire jumps to head Preston in front against Barnsley

Was Preston's draw against Barnsley a tale of two players who were missing, as much as about those who took part?

Ben Pearson and Daniel Johnson were conspicuous by their absence from the team, injury keeping them on the sidelines.

As well as the necessary change of personnel, Alex Neil chose to switch North End’s approach to the clash.

Rather than aim to play through midfield, Neil looked at the wider picture in that the ball spent plenty of time out on the wings.

The Scotsman insisted that still would have been the case even had Pearson and DJ been available.

Taking into consideration that in their last game before the international break the Tykes had taken Sunderland to the cleaners by exploiting the centre of the pitch, Neil chose to avoid that area.

It made for a different type of game than we had got used to last month, one which was far more stretched and open.

There was not the control of parts of the contest which had been seen, for example, against Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Middlesbrough and Leeds.

Action swung from one end of the pitch to the other, that creating plenty of incident but without too much quality.

PNE had the better of it, in the shape of more shots, more corners and more possession.

However, they lacked a bit of care and guile around the edge of the Barnsley box to make it count.

“To be honest, I didn’t play for us to have control of the game,” said Neil.

“I made it an open game, that was a conscious decision.

“The reason being was that I felt my front four had enough ammunition at the top end of the pitch to beat them.”

Pearson’s absence was the legacy of an injury collected at Middlesbrough a fortnight earlier, with Johnson hurt in the meantime in training.

Said Neil: “We missed key players in Ben and DJ, they were part of the foundation which our midfield had been built on to this point.

“We chose to play with a different style, we didn’t make as many passes in there, we didn’t play through central areas as much.

“I had seen Barnsley beat Sunderland.

“During that game, Sunderland tried to play through central areas and Barnsley hurt them three times on the counter-attack.

“We didn’t want to get caught like that so we pulled it into wider areas, using our pace with Tom Barkhuizen and Stephy Mavididi.”

Pearson and Johnson were always going to be missed.

Over the last 12 months, we have seen the influence Pearson has had in the Preston midfield.