Preston North End Vs Nottingham Forest
Coca-Cola Championship Tuesday 16th September 7:45PM KO
With Preston being still unbeaten in the league, the Lilywhites welcome newly promoted Nottingham Forest to Deepdale in hope of further extending their unbeaten run which now stands at 5 games. Forest travel to Lancashire on the back of two straight league defeats which includes the cataclysmic 5-1 defeat to Wolves on August 30th.
With that in mind, Colin Calderwood will be urging his players to keep their heads and end the run of defeats at Deepdale on Tuesday night. However, such a feat is easier said than done with the Lilywhites currently sitting in 3rd place and two points behind top of the table Wolves.
Forest have only one league win to their names so far as they saw off Aidy Boothroyd's Watford in a thrilling encounter at the City Ground with the game finishing 3-2.
Previous Meetings
Due to spending the last 4 seasons in League One, we have to go back to the 2004/2005 campaign for when Preston last faced Forest. At Deepdale, in October 2004 Preston saw off Forest in a 3-2 win thanks to goals from Paul McKenna, Chris Lucketti and Dickson Etuhu. Forest made the remaining 12 or so minutes somewhat uncomfortable for Preston as Marlon King pulled two back in as many minutes to spark a nail biting last few moments for the Deepdale crowd. Preston were able to hang on and collected the three points. Only two players remain in the Preston squad who faced Forest that night, them being Youl Mawene and Paul McKenna.
The return fixture ended in a 2-0 win for Forest with goals from Paul Evans and Kris Commons, despite Preston enjoying the majority of the possession.
Head to Head
With the Preston faithful having already witnessed what young Kelvin Wilson has to offer, I like many others suspect that an interesting battle between him and Neil Mellor may be in store on Tuesday night. Both possess pace and power in their arsenal and both will be familiar with each other's games having been teammates at Deepdale. With that in mind, I would keep a closer eye on these two individuals.
Team News
There are no new injury concerns for Colin Calderwood but it has been suggested that a few changes could be made to freshen things up. Andy Cole is poised and ready to make his first ever start for the club whilst Garath McCleary and Matt Thornhill eagerly anticipate Calderwood's team sheet having both been on the bench in their last game.
For Preston, Richard Chaplow should be fit despite being taken off in the 0-0 draw with Coventry with a tight hamstring. Irvine had revealed that it should be no more than cramp meaning that the former Burnley man will keep his place in the centre of midfield.