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“We didn’t have the players to play them”: Preston North End boss explains Barcelona call-off Deepdale boss lifts the lid on the cancellation of their proposed Barcelona friendly. Paul Heckingbottom has explained the reasoning behind the cancellation of Preston North End’s planned pre-season friendly against Barcelona. The two clubs had been due to meet behind closed doors earlier this week, only for the match to be called off amid reports that the Lilywhites didn’t have a sufficient number of players available. Speaking on Thursday, Heckingbottom outlined why the decision to cancel the match was taken. North End’s boss said: “We didn’t have the players to play them. “We were going to play the fixture but then they were going to play a young team against our young team. “Then I think they decided - because they played on the Friday night, we played on a Saturday, plus we’d had to move the fixture so they could catch a flight - it just became one of those where they thought ‘it’s probably not in our best interests, we’ll have a training session instead.’” Saturday sees North End start the new season with their Carabao Cup tie against Huddersfield Town. It comes 14 weeks after last season ended in a home defeat to Southampton, with Heckingbottom glad of a break from the footballing treadmill before returning to pre-season training earlier this summer. Subscribe now for HALF PRICE and catch every minute of our PNE coverage this season - from pre-season to the final whistle. Click here He said: “I think you’re always ready for it (time off). “A couple of weeks in and, I wouldn’t say ‘wanting to get back’ is the right thing, but you’re back at work because you know how important things are. “Once you start doing that, you just want the players to be back and once the players are back, you just want the games to start. “You end up wishing your life away to get the season kicked off!”