Preston North End Vs West Bromwich Albion
Tuesday 29th January 2008 Coca-Cola Championship
After North End's FA Cup 3rd round victory over Scunthorpe, Alan Irvine's PNE followed that result with a victory of one of the leagues high fliers, namely Watford. Irvine will be hoping that history repeats itself as North End look to follow up their emphatic victory over Premier League Derby, with more of the same. Tony Mowbray's West Brom have shown they can give teams a good hiding on their day and with strikers like Kevin Phillips who currently leads the Championship scoring charts, it's no wonder why. Despite this, the Baggies have only recorded a handful of away wins in the league all season which may give the Lilywhites extra confidence going into this fixture. Remarkably, Preston haven't lost on a Tuesday night in the league at Deepdale in 30 games, dating back to February 2001. Preston currently lie in 22nd and are 4 points adrift of Sheffield Wednesday who have a game in hand, so will be looking not to make the gap even greater. West Brom on the other hand are the leagues pace setters, who are top on 51 points will be striving to keep their pole position.
Previous Meetings
The corresponding fixture last season saw Patrick Agyemang score a spectacular over head kick to give the home side the three points. But with Patrick no longer a North Ender, they will be looking to others for their inspiration. However, the last time these two teams met was at the Hawthorns where a 6 goal thriller saw the baggies hammer Preston 4-2. Goals from Koumas and Kamara gave the Albion a 2 goal lead after just 25 minutes. An Alexander penalty and a goal from Nugent put Preston level after 67 minutes to give Preston hope of salvaging something from the game. However it wasn't to be North End's day as a late double from Nathan Ellington saw the game swing in West Brom's favour and gave them all the points on offer.
Team News
Richard Chaplow is back into contention, after being rested, as he and Darren Carter look to put one over on their former employers. Monday saw the return to training of Billy Jones as he looks to win his right back place back. Lewis Neal who also was rested for the FA cup 4th round game against Derby is back into contention as Irvine has a near full squad to choose from.