Tony Pulis's Sheffield Wednesday debut offers organisation but few solid conclusions

A poor punch from the recalled Keiren Westwood allowed a wonderful volley by Tom Barkhuizen gave the game something to be remembered by beyond the Owls' fourth straight red card already this season.

Pulis had his new side very well organised but it was hard to draw too many conclusions against a Preston North End side desperately short of confidence at Deepdale. With Josh Windass sent off after little more than a quarter of an hour, there was little opportunity to assess whether he can eke more goals out of this team than predecessor Garry Monk did.

Monk had put the Owls a win away from moving out of the Championship's bottom three for the first time before his sacking, but a 1-0 defeat ensured they remain there for now.

Even at 11 v 11, the emphasis was very much on defence from the Welshman, who selected three centre-backs despite reverting to a back four. Pulis's fondness for central defenders at full-back saw Joost van Aken on the left side of defence.

It made for a pretty uneventful game, but Pulis would probably have taken that having seen his side reduced to ten men.

His job got harder after 17 minutes when Windass challenged for a bouncing ball and instead of getting it, planted his studs into the chest of Joe Rafferty. It was Wednesday's fourth red card of the season, none of them for two cautions.

Maybe frustration played a factor for Windass after the safety-first way Pulis set his new team up. It looked not so much as if the centre-forward had been told to isolate, but as if his team-mates had been ordered to leave him alone.

Callum Paterson was one of five midfielders in front of the back four, between the fit-again Massimo Luongo and right-winger Moses Odubajo. Paterson was put into midfield because unlike Monk, Pulis does not consider that to be his best position, but the red card meant he played most of the game there until making way for Jordan Rhodes for the final 11 minutes.

None of the midfielders seemed particularly anxious to break forward in the opening stages, leaving Windass to go it alone and drag a weak shot wide when he picked up the ball 30 seconds or so after an ambitious shot from just inside Preston's half which went wide.

Windass won a ninth-minute corner which was too deep when it reached him for Adam Reach to convert, but it was a thankless task.

The ten men actually looked more threatening than the 11, content to threaten on the counter-attack whilst allowing the Lilywhites 75 per cent of the possession.

Luongo, shifted to the right in the reshuffle, had a shot blocked and another deflected into the side netting when he came inside.

With the Owls showing the defensive organisation that is their new manager's trademark, Preston's weakness at home showed. Since beating Mansfield Town 4-0 in the League Cup on the opening weekend of the season, Alex Neil's men have lost all five matches at Deepdale, scoring just once. They experimented with pumping in artificial noise but there was little to shout about, Emil Riis heading wide at a corner, Ryan Ledson curling over at a half-cleared flag kick and Scott Sinclair's penalty appeals after clashing with Liam Palmer in the area waved away.

Alex Neil made a double substitution at half-time and it looked to have injected some energy into his side, who took the lead in the 47th minute.

Much had rightly been made of the return of goalkeeper Westwood, exiled to the under-23s and excluded from the squad list by Monk but when he strained over the heads of a crowd of players to punch a corner, his weak effort teed the ball up for Barkhuizen to volley in with his left foot.

It neither opened up the game nor the floodgates.

Wednesday's only good chance of the second half came from another Pulis trademark, the long throw, delivered by Paterson, but Odubajo dragged a poor shot wide.

That said, Preston offered little too, most of it from half-time substitute Paul Gallagher's free-kicks – one headed wide, another direct onto the roof of the net either side of Daniel Johnson's shot wide from a counter-attack.

The damage was limited but Wednesday need more than that. Pulis, though, is still getting to grips with this team.

Preston North End: Rudd; Fisher, Huntington, Bauer, Rafferty (Stockley 46); Ledson (Pearson 71), Johnson; Barkhuizen, Potts (Gallagher 46), Sinclair; Riis (Maguire 71).

Unused substitutes: Earl, Bayliss, Storey, Ripley, O'Reilly.

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood; Palmer, Lees, Borner, van Aken; Odubajo (Rhodes 74), Paterson (Brown 79), Luongo (Pelupessy 61), Bannan, Reach; Windass.

Unused substitutes: Penney, Dele-Bashiru, Shaw, Wildsmith, Hunt, Kachunga.

Referee: D Webb (County Durham).

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