The Lilywhites are back at home on Wednesday night as they have their first televised clash of the season, as Sky Sports and Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa roll into PR1.
North End suffered only their second home defeat of 2017 at the weekend, whilst the Villans shared the points in a stalemate with local rivals Birmingham City, also in front of a TV audience on Sunday lunchtime.
For the PNE manager and his staff, they must again shuffle the defensive pack. Already without long term casualties Tom Clarke, Greg Cunningham and Tommy Spurr, Ben Davies has his appendix out on the morning of the Brentford game and then that afternoon current skipper Paul Huntington picked up his fifth caution of the season, meaning he is ruled out.
The two sides met last at Deepdale, exactly 13 months ago, on the 1st October 2016, Ben Pearson getting his one and only goal for the club thus far and Jordan Hugill getting what turned out to be the first of three goals against the second city side in last season’s brace of fixtures. However, this will only be the second clash of the two teams at Deepdale since the mid-1970s.
For all the news and build-up to the game, check out our links to the preview articles below:
Click here for ticket information
Click here to buy a match ticket
Click here for the manager’s views on the game
Click here for details of the match officials
Click here for Alan Browne’s thoughts on the match
Click here for a statistical look at the game
Click here for the PNE team news
Click here for the views of Steve Bruce
Click here for information on issue eight of The One And Only