A 1-1 draw away at Middlesbrough in midweek extended Preston North End’s unbeaten run in the Championship to 7 matches under manager, Alex Neil, whose side now sit in the early play-off places in 6th spot.
During this impressive 7-match sequence, Preston have captured wins against Stoke City, Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford and Birmingham City - the latter being a 1-0 win at St Andrews, so Preston will no doubt be confident of maintaining this run of solid form at Deepdale on Saturday.
Preston have become a stubborn unit at their Deepdale fortress as the hosts have suffered just 2 defeats out of their last 16 matches on home turf, and these were to promoted Sheffield United and play-off participants, Leeds United.
5 wins from their last 7 home matches underline Preston’s recent dominance in their own backyard, along with the fact that the hosts have scored 2 goals or more in each of these last 7 matches as well.
Midfielder Johnson (5 goals) and forward Maguire (3 goals) look the most likely for Preston here.
By contrast, Barnsley occupy third from bottom in the Championship and sit in the relegation zone ahead of this difficult looking assignment at Deepdale against in-form Preston North End.
Barnsley’s current plight hasn’t been helped by the fact that The Tykes have managed to register just 1 win from their first 10 matches of this new Championship season, and that was on the opening day of the season when they caused a stir by inflicting a 1-0 home win over pre-season promotion favourites, Fulham.
However, Barnsley have failed to build upon that opening day win as the Yorkshire club have since slumped to 9 league matches without a win in the second tier, as well as failing to win any of their first 4 away matches of this new term.
Fantastic tonight, to get a draw in 94th minute amazing scenes...don’t matter how they go in, @ConorChaplin10 sorry bro love you ❤️ @BarnsleyFC pic.twitter.com/SLTxabzlJm— Cauley Woodrow (@CauleyWoodrow) October 2, 2019
Fantastic tonight, to get a draw in 94th minute amazing scenes...don’t matter how they go in, @ConorChaplin10 sorry bro love you ❤️ @BarnsleyFC pic.twitter.com/SLTxabzlJm
3 defeats from these 4 away matches have helped dump Barnsley into early relegation danger following losses at Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest, while a point in a 0-0 draw at Wigan Athletic means The Tykes have picked up just 1 point from the first possible 12 on offer on the road.
Worse still, Barnsley have failed to hit the back of the net in each of these first 4 away matches too, so they’re expected to have their work cut out against Preston this Saturday.