Preston North End Vs Watford
Coca-Cola Championship, Saturday 12th January 2008.
Match Preview
With the January sales dominating much of the football news it can only be assumed that there could be new additions to both teams before Saturday. Preston have already secured the services of former Burnley midfielder, Richard Chaplow from West Brom, and with rumours rife around Lancashire of others to follow, it makes interesting reading ahead of this Championship clash. Watford on the other hand are yet to make any additions to their squad but will be looking to strengthen to keep their promotion hopes alive. Both teams will desperately want the three points with Watford very much wanting a return to the Premier League at the first time of asking, and Preston hoping to avoid relegation into League 1. The Hornets are currently joint top on 47 points and will be looking to make it 3 wins out of 3 in January, in all competitions. Preston meanwhile will be hoping to make it their first home win in the league since the start of December and currently find themselves bottom with 24 points. Three points from safety.
Previous Meetings
The last time these two teams met was in the 2005/2006 season where Preston had the upper hand in a 2-1 victory on the opening day of the season, goals from David Nugent and Dixon Etuhu for the Lilywhites after Darius Henderson had put the home team ahead. The last time Watford visited Deepdale however, back in November 2005, the game ended in a 1-1 draw with Matthew Spring putting the visitors ahead shortly before Callum Davidson equalised.
Watford will be without defender Junior Osborne and midfielder Gareth Williams who have both suffered cruciate ligament injuries. Preston will have to do without the services of Matty Hill who will be serving his one match suspension after collecting 5 yellow cards and also Billy Jones who is still recovering from a hernia operation but Richard Chaplow is set to make his debut.