Stoke City Vs Preston North End
Coca-Cola Championship Saturday 19th January 2008
Preston travel to the Britannia Stadium to face Stoke City where it will be a case of ex-Preston meets Alan Irvine's new look Preston. It will be the first time that Cresswell and Pugh face PNE in a Stoke City shirt and will be looking to bounce back from their 4-1 defeat to Newcastle in the FA cup by getting one over on their former employers, to keep their promotion push on course. Stoke are currently 4th and are only 6 points behind league leaders West Brom. Preston however, who despite lifting themselves off the bottom of the championship, don't have their heads above water yet but are just 3 points away from 19th spot. Stoke are however without a win in their last 6 games, after 5 league draws and the aforementioned defeat to 4-1 Newcastle in the FA Cup. Preston who have won 3 out of their last 6, including last Saturdays 1-0 win over promotion hopefuls Watford will be full of confidence going in to the game against the Potters and will be looking to get back to back wins in the league in their pursuit of safety.
Previous Meetings
The corresponding fixture last season saw a 1-1 draw, Fuller put the home side ahead before half time but was later cancelled out by a superbly executed Patrick Agyemang goal. It was, however the game at Deepdale when these two teams last met one year ago this weekend, which saw the pick of the action. Stoke were 2-0 up after just 7 minutes with goals from Liam Lawrence and Mamady Sidibie and went into the break with the game looking as good as over. After a stern talking to at half time from manager Paul Simpson, Preston came out firing on all cylinders and goals from Nugent and Mckenna pegged Stoke back to 2-2 before Kelvin Wilson's last minute close range effort gave Preston all the points in a dramatic game.
Team News
Preston will welcome the return of Matt Hill to the fold after his one game suspension. Billy Jones however is still resigned to the treatment room after his successful hernia operation. Striker Neil Mellor will be hopeful of a starting place alongside new boy Chris Brown after his goal sealed the points at Deepdale last week against Watford. Stoke City of course will have Preston old boys Danny Pugh, Richard Cresswell, Ricardo Fuller and Marlon Broomes at their disposal and also welcome back Andy Griffin after he begins his second spell at the club.