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Preston v Blackburn
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Kick Off: Sunday 22nd September at 12:00
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Competition: Championship
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Watch Live: Sky Sports Football
The North West of England will come to a standstill on Sunday lunchtime as Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers go head-to-head in what should be an intriguing Lancashire derby at Deepdale. North End will at least head into this in high spirits after knocking Premier League Fulham out of the League Cup on Tuesday night on penalties.
To add more flavour to that fact, the spot-kicks finished 16-15 in their favour; which is now a League Cup record for the longest shoot-out. This, combined with their away league draw at Middlesbrough last weekend, has been a positive way to bounce back from losing to newly promoted Oxford United.
Blackburn are on a high of their own on account of defeating Bristol City 3-0 last time out, which was their biggest margin of victory in a home league encounter since beating Birmingham City 4-0 at Ewood Park in December 2021. However, they’ve been having some joy away from home since the start of the last few months of the previous campaign, so they travel knowing and believing they can get a positive result, especially as they’re unbeaten on their last four visits here. The joint-highest scorers in the division are also yet to taste defeat in Championship action, so they fear no opponent at present.
Preston v Blackburn Best Bets
➡️ Blackburn to score first @ 2.0 on Betfair
➡️ Yuki Ohashi to score anytime @ 3.10 on Betfair
Anything can happen on derby day but it would be fair to say that Blackburn are in a little more of a trustworthy state compared to Preston. Rovers have started the season excellently and have shocked everyone by riding high in the table and being unbeaten, especially after selling star player Sammie Szmodics to Ipswich.
Whether they can keep this up is another matter, but for now, they have to be kept onside in some way. Preston should improve under Paul Heckingbottom over time, but they are inconsistent, plus the midweek cup contest with Fulham may have taken a lot out of them, whereas Blackburn have had a free week. They are the joint-highest scorers in the division, so will look to play on the front foot right from the start. Blackburn to score the first goal is priced at 2.0 with Betfair, which is good value against a team struggling to score.
Also, Blackburn have indeed fired in goal number one in five of their seven matches in all competitions this season. One man who could grab that goal or at some point over the course of the 90 minutes is Yuki Ohashi, who is priced at 3.10 with Betfair to score at anytime. The Japanese forward already has five goals to his name since signing from the J1 League, making a mockery of the myth of players requiring time to settle in a new country and a new league.
There is a sheer energy to his game that makes him a joy to watch, so it is no shock he has quickly become a fans’ favourite and he could further enhance that by netting in this local derby. After netting a brace versus Bristol City last weekend he is really at the top of his game now and given he has bagged three goals across the three fixtures he has started since making the move to Lancashire, his importance to the team is evident already. He looks to now be ahead of Makhtar Gueye in the striker pecking order.
📂 Preston v Blackburn Cheat Sheet
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📊 Preston Form and Stats
In midweek, Preston saw their League Cup success story continue for another round at least by knocking out Fulham of the Premier League on penalties. Manager Paul Heckingbottom elected to rotate his team quite significantly in that battle, meaning he will be pleased with the plethora of options available to him. They are now into the last 16 of that competition but the league remains and always has been the priority. Worryingly, after victories in the two earlier League Cup rounds, they would lose the corresponding league fixture.
The next challenge for Heckingbottom is to discover some consistency when in league action. He has overseen three league matches since his appointment, which has resulted in one win, one draw and one defeat. The stalemate at Middlesbrough last weekend however was a good result, plus it ended the club’s ten-game Championship run without a draw.
Speaking of draws, they have also been very hard to come by in home-league clashes for North End. Since the beginning of November 2023, only two Championship home encounters for Preston resulted in draws, which is over an 18-game run. Overcoming a Luton team that was a Premier League club last season in the previous home league contest should give them belief of producing a run of positive outcomes at Deepdale.
Scoring goals has not been so straightforward for Preston in the league this season and that has been an obvious targeted area of improvement since the new manager came in. Only three other clubs have a worse xGF figure compared to The Lilywhites’. Not scoring is an issue but conceding is just as bad, and knowing just two other teams can say their xGA is poorer than that of Preston is a concern. Collectively things must improve but it is still early days in the Heckingbottom era.
📊 Blackburn Form and Stats
After five rounds of Championship fixtures in 2024/25, Blackburn are the joint-highest scorers in the division. This translates to an average of 2.40 goals for per game in this sequence, which is all the more impressive considering they have achieved this withoiut the now departed Sammie Szmodics, who alone was responsible for netting 45% of their league goals last season.
In the permanent absence of Szmodics, others have had to step up to the plate in trying to replace his goals. The one individual that has done so best of all is forward Yuki Ohashi, who joined the Ewood Park club a few months ago from Japanese J1 League outfit Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The 26-year-old already has five goals to his name in league and cup, which included a brace in the 3-0 victory over Bristol City last weekend. Interestingly, three of those five strikes have come in the 70th minute or later.
It could be argued that there is a degree of good fortune over the number of goals the team have scored. As mentioned, they’re joint-highest scorers in the Championship and yet their xGF is just over half the amount their GF, meaning Blackburn are over-achieving in terms of their attacking output. This also demonstrates their killer instinct in front of goal, especially knowing that only seven other teams in the league have recorded fewer shots than John Eustace’s side.
Rovers would struggle against relegation in the last campaign, but they did still at least have a mid table away record. They are unbeaten on the road this season in all competitions, which includes commendable draws at Burnley and Norwich. In fact, over the long term, Blackburn have suffered only two losses over their 15 most recent Championship away fixtures, including scoring in all bar three of those.
⚔️ Preston v Blackburn Head-to-Head
Since 2015/16, the Lancashire derby has been a regular fixture on the footballing calendar. Although Blackburn are enjoying a stronger season of the too so far, it is actually Preston who have enjoyed the better in this head-to-head series. Over the previous four league meetings, North End are unbeaten, claiming eight points out of a possible 12.
However, there is a flip side which shows Blackburn in a brighter light when facing their local opposition. That is based upon their recent visits to Deepdale, where they haven’t suffered defeat on any of their last four trips, which includes two commanding victories by scores of 4-1 and 3-0.
Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom is someone who has had great success when coming up against Rovers throughout his managerial career, which comes from his employment with Sheffield United and Barnsley. Over that period, his teams have managed to secure five out of a possible six triumphs, four of which came alongside a clean sheet.
In the most recent battle between these two teams, Blackburn squandered a 2-0 half-time lead before eventually drawing 2-2 on the day. They will, of course, not wish to suffer any similar kind of repeat, but a concern for Eustace’s side is that in two clashes this season in all competitions they’ve already failed to win despite being ahead at the interval.
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