Swansea City Vs Preston North End
Coca-Cola Championship Tuesday 27th January 2009
Because Preston's FA Cup involvement was halted at the third round, the Lilywhites had a weekend off whilst others chased an FA Cup dream. Accordingly, Alan Irvine's men have been making the most of their break to ensure that they will be as sharp as a tack heading into the trip to the Liberty Stadium this Tuesday.
Both teams are in a rich vein of form at the moment with North End currently riding high in 5th place after wins against promotion rivals Wolves and Burnley. Swansea however, are on an incredible unbeaten run that dates back to November. Twelve games in a row, in all competitions, has seen Swansea book their place in the 5th round of the FA Cup and rocket their way into 9th place in the Championship table. From those twelve games, The Swans have notched up four straight wins which came against the likes of Burnley and Reading in the Championship and more recently, Portsmouth in the FA Cup.
With that in mind, Alan Irvine and his men will no doubt be aware of the tough task they have in front of them and will not want a repeat of the 2-0 defeat his side suffered at Deepdale when these two teams last met back in September.
Previous Meetings
As mentioned above, Swansea emerged as victors in the game at Deepdale earlier in the season which subsequently ended Preston's Tuesday night home record. Preston had hit a bad patch in form but nevertheless were still stunned when Ferrie Bodde let loose from over thirty yards to beat a helpless Andrew Lonergan, giving his side the lead with just 19 minutes played. An 80th minute Jordi Gomez penalty sealed the win for Swansea.
Because these two sides have been competing in different leagues since the 1992/1993 season when Swansea did the double of Preston, the only other meeting that has occurred since then was in the FA Cup back in January 2004 when Swansea knocked Preston out of the FA Cup. Dickson Etuhu put Preston ahead just shy of the hour mark only to see Robinson and Trundle net two in as many minutes in the closing stages of the game to seal the win for the Swans.
In total, Preston have faced Swansea 54 times and trail in terms of wins with 18 whilst Swansea have 20.
Team News
Striker Neil Mellor faces an uphill task if he is to get himself fit in time for this Tuesday's match. The former Liverpool striker is still feeling the effects of the bizarre incident which saw him collide with some advertising hoardings against Bristol City back in November. Neal Trotman and Liam Chilvers, despite being back in training recently, are still a long way away from first team action.
Chris Sedgwick will also miss out after picking up his 5th yellow card against Burnley. Barry Nicholson is expected to deputise.