Preston North End face Southampton at Deepdale in a huge Championship clash.
Split by just one point in fourth and fifth positions respectively, victory would see Preston or Southampton go third if Leeds lose elsewhere.
Team News
Preston have no fresh injury concerns after their 1-1 draw against Millwall on Saturday
Ali McCann, Andrew Hughes (both calf), Calvin Ramsay (knee), Jack Whatmough (hamstring) and Emil Riis Jakobsen (ACL) remain absent.
Southampton will be without Ryan Manning due to suspension, after he picked up his fifth booking of the season in their away win at Hull.
Jack Stephens (calf), Juan Larios (hamstring) and Ross Stewart (Achilles) remain ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
Preston host Southampton at Deepdale at 7:45pm BST on Wednesday 25 October, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Preston have won three of their last five league meetings against Southampton (W3, L2).
- Southampton have won just one of their last five league visits to Preston (W1, D2, L2).
- Both teams have scored in six of their last seven league meetings at Deepdale except for a goalless draw in November 1964.
- Preston are looking to avoid going six league matches without a win for the first time since a seven-match streak between September-October 2021.
- Southampton have scored first in each of the five away league matches in which they managed to find the net this season (W4, L1), despite keeping just one clean sheet in those five games.
Prediction
Having drifted away from the top two with a five-match winless rut, Preston really need to start finding their early-season form if want to fight for automatic promotion because they’ve ben below par lately and lacked much quality against Millwall after taking the lead.
Southampton meanwhile certainly were pushed hard by Hull in a closely fought contest where they had to dig deep despite their dominance, which paid off with a late winner that will give them huge confidence in light of their poor away form at Deepdale.
Russell Martin’s Saints though are quite a difficult team to beat on the road with goals in four of their five away matches, so I do expect this to be another tough encounter with a draw looking a fair result because Preston will be harder to beat than Hull were for Southampton.
Prediction: Preston 1-1 Southampton
Result: Preston 2-2 Southampton
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