Preston North End welcome Middlesbrough to Deepdale for the 46th time in a league fixture this New Year’s Day.
The visitors lead the overall league head-to-head with 39 wins to the Lilywhites’ 27, with North End still waiting for a home win against the Teeside outfit, the last one coming with a 1-0 success in April 1972!
Our first win against them here in PR1 came way back in March 1905, a 2-0 success, whilst our biggest win was in September 1948, when PNE triumphed 6-1.
One of the most recent memorable games back in October 2009 when a last-minute equaliser gave North End a point in what was the two sides’ first league meeting between in 35 years.
That afternoon, Billy Jones scored a last-minute header to snatch a point for Alan Irvine’s Lilywhites.
Middlesbrough dominated the opening half and took the lead when Gary O'Neil, who had already been denied by Andy Lonergan, scored with a free-kick.
Paul Parry levelled with a neat finish from a tight angle after Brad Jones has parried Jon Parkin's header.
Adam Johnson restored Boro's lead with a low shot into the bottom corner and Rhys Williams hit the post, but Jones converted a Ross Wallace free-kick.
The match proved to be Colin Cooper's only game in charge of Boro before the club made a permanent appointment as successor to Gareth Southgate and the visiting team, encouraged by considerable away support, created a series of decent openings.
But North End rallied after the break and their perseverance was rewarded with their late equaliser - although the draw meant that the Lilywhites End dropped out of the top six.
PNE manager Alan Irvine said post-match: “I'm not over-happy. We have got a point, but I look for more than just a result. There are a lot of things we will need to take out of that game and improve upon.
“We were poor in the first half. I was praying for half-time to come to address some of the issues that needed addressing. I thought we got the response almost from the kick-off in the second half. We then started to stretch the game out a bit better than we had in the first half. They deserve enormous credit for keeping going. It's a fantastic quality to have.”
Middlesbrough caretaker manager Cooper added: “Unfortunately, it comes a bit too much of a coincidence when you concede two to three late goals. We should be sitting fairly close to the top of the table with the points that have gone begging.
“Hopefully we will learn and not make mistakes in a game that we should have won comfortably.”