Preston North End v West Bromwich Albion
Coca-Cola Championship
Tuesday 29th January 2008
Kick-off 7.45pm
Following the glory of the FA Cup Preston North End must get back to the more important business of the league against West Brom on Tuesday night.
The Lilywhites have received a treble-boost on the injury front with Richard Chaplow, Lewis Neal and significantly Billy Jones all back in contention after training on Monday morning. Chaplow and Neal were all rested as precautionary measures with tight hamstrings but the return of Billy Jones following hernia surgery is a real boost and adds real competition to the right-back area where Sean St. Ledger has been doing so well.
North End will be aiming to make it 30 games unbeaten on a Tuesday night in the league at Deepdale, a terrific run of form which stretches all the way back to February 2001. The omens are also good coming off the back of a cup win, the Lilywhites defeated Watford at Deepdale in their next game after knocking Scunthorpe out of the Cup.
West Brom had a fine away victory of their own to crow about on Saturday, albeit against lower league opposition , they defeated Darren Ferguson's Peterborough United in quite convincing fashion. However Baggies boss Tony Mowbray still had one eye on Tuesday night's trip to Deepdale stating that the Premiership is the priority, much as we suspect Championship survival is PNE's priority.
Last Time Out
Preston: Lonergan, St. Ledger, Mawene, Chilvers, Davidson (Hill 46), Sedgwick, McKenna, Carter, Whaley (Nicholls 86), Brown, Hawley (Mellor 85)
Subs not used Chris Neal, Ormerod,
Peterborough 0 West Brom 3
West Brom: Kiely, Hoefkens, Albrechtsen, Cesar, Robinson, Morrison, Koren, Greening (Brunt 64), Filipe Teixeira, Bednar (Phillips 46), Beattie (MacDonald 78)
Subs not used Steele, Barnett,
The League Table
Preston will be aiming to close the gap on the teams directly above them in the Championship table with a win over the Baggies. With four points seperating 21st placed Sheffield Wednesday from PNE in 22nd the Lilywhites know that even a victory won't take them out of the relegation zone.
Tony Mowbray's men will be aiming to consolidate their place at the top of the Championship table. The Baggies currently occupy top spot, level on 51 points with Bristol City although they have far superior goal difference to the Robins, plus a game in hand.
Ones To Watch
Karl Hawley
Hawley's two goal show at Pride Park has seen him nominated for the FA Cup Player of the Round - Click here to vote for Karl - the brace doubled his tally for the season and put him one behind another of PNE's Cup heroes, Simon Whaley, in North End's goalscoring charts.
The former Carlisle man will have been pleased with both his strikes in the first half at Pride Park, the first set up by his strike-partner Chris Brown. The pairing seemed to have developed a good understanding in the three games they have started together.
Kevin Phillips
The Baggies gave 'SuperKev' something of a rest against Peterborough at the weekend, yet he still managed to climb off the bench to bag a goal from the penalty spot.
The Hitchin born forward surprised many when he chose to move to West Brom over his former club Sunderland but the £700,000 that the Baggies paid for him has proven to be an absolute bargain.
Phillips may have scored no goals from eight England appearances but his strike rate at club level is a phenomenal 0.48 which means that he scores at a rate of almost one every two games in the league. His prowess for West Brom this season has been even better than that with 17 goals from 17 starts.
Head to Head
You have to go all the way back to the 1958/59 season for the last time the Baggies defeated the Lilywhites in the league at Deepdale. The Midlands club have faired better in cup competitions winning the last two knockout games played between the two sides at North End's home, and don't forget that heartbreaking FA Cup Final defeat in 1954.
Overall the two teams have battled out an impressive 107 fixtures and whilst things are level-pegging in the league with 36 wins each, the Baggies hold the upper hand in all competitions with 44 wins to North End's 38.
Last Time We Met At Deepdale
PNE 1 West Brom 0
Coca-Cola Championship
12th September, 2006
Agyemang 78
Attendance: 12,119
Referee - Keith Stroud
The Hampshire-based Premier League official was a last minute replacement for originally billeted referee Uriah Rennie, with the Club only learning of the change this morning.
Stroud has taken charge of some notable games this season, including Tottenham's 6-4 victory over Reading and the 2-2 draw between Fulham and Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup.
His disciplinary record suggests that he's a hard task-master, with 83 bookings in 23 outings, with his four dismissals coming as two pairs of red cards in the Scunthorpe v Sheffield United and Wycombe v MK Dons games.
He last oversaw North End in last April's 1-0 reverse at QPR, and his only other Preston encounter was a 2-1 defeat at Reading in February 2006.
Betting
Preston 11/5, Draw 12/5, West Brom 6/5. Can Karl Hawley continue his goalscoring form? The striker is 45/1 to score first in a 1-0 win. Click here to have a bet with North End's official betting partner, pnebetting.co.uk
Listen Live
Join us on Whites World from 7.15pm where Matt Morris and Adrian Ward will provide all the big match build-up before Matt Hardman steps into the press box to provide exclusive full match commentary. Whites World is available now from just £3.99 per month or £19.99 for the remainder of the season, meaning you can follow North End from anywhere on the globe. Don't forget to send your thoughts and opinions on the game to matchday@pne.com.
Kit
North End will return to their traditional colours of white shirts, blue shots and white socks.
