Exeter City Vs Preston North End Match Preview
Npower League One Saturday 17th March 2012
Venue: St James Park
Kick Off: 15:00
Referee: Michael Russell (click here for referee statistics)
Form:
Exeter City: LWLDLL
Preston North End: LDLDDL
North End’s woes continued on Tuesday night with a defeat to Tranmere Rovers, despite taking the lead with Graham Cummins’ second goal since joining in January.
With two more difficult away games to face before eventually returning to Deepdale, it could be argued that said games are to be considered ‘must win’.
Next up for North End is a trip to St James Park to take on Exeter City and with neither side in a particularly rich vein of form, or indeed occupying a favourable league position, chances are it won’t be a classic.
Exeter are on a run of two straight away wins but have just one home defeat in their last six, that being to league leaders Charlton Athletic.
Previous Meetings (Click here for head-to-head stats)
The Deepdale meeting back in August was the first time North End had gone up against Exeter since the last day of the 1995/1996 season when the Lilywhites were crowned Division Three (League Two) Champions.
Jamie Proctor’s goal just before half time proved to be the decisive moment in the game and gave North End all three points.
Team News
Midfielder Paul Coutts should be back in contention having missed the trip to Tranmere with a reported thigh strain.
Max Ehmer, Graham Westley’s 10th acquisition since becoming North End boss, is set to make his debut at St James Park.
Meanwhile, Craig Morgan and Neil Mellor are “not far away” in terms of a comeback according to PNE boss Westley.
For Exeter, David Noble begins his three match suspension after picking up a red card in Exeter’s 2-0 defeat to Brentford on Tuesday night.
However, The Grecians have made a loan signing themselves with centre back Pat Baldwin joining the ranks at St James Park until the end of the season and is in line to make his debut against North End.
Baldwin comes in to cover for Danny Coles who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a fractured spine.
Scot Bennett is also out of contention with a hamstring problem.
Played for Both, click here