Norwich City Vs Preston North End
Coca-Cola Championship 2nd February 2008
After all the transfer window madness, it will be a relief I am sure for Alan Irvine to get back to preparing his side to face Norwich City. Norwich are a prime example of how a run of a few wins can bring you right out of trouble as they now find themselves in a far more comfortable 16th place. Something North End will be looking to emulate as they battle bravely against relegation.
North End will be looking to make it 3 wins on the bounce after impressive wins over Derby county in the FA Cup and automatic promotion hopefuls, West Brom. Norwich however, have only won 2 out of the last 8 with their last home win dating back to December 8th, where they beat Bryan Robson's Sheffield United 1-0
Previous Meetings
Last season's visit to Carrow road, on the 8th august 2006, saw the lilywhites do down to a two nil defeat, with Sean St. Ledger scoring an own goal before Earnshaw sealed the points with a goal late on. To make matters worse, former club captain Graham Alexander was dismissed deep into injury time after a rash challenge on Adum Drury. North End did however get their own-back in the game at Deepdale last season as former Slavia Prague midfielder, Pavel Pergl opened the scoring after 28 minutes. Danny Dichio put North End 2-0 before half time only to see Norwich pull one back after just over an hour played to leave the PNE faithful on the edges of their seats. Paul Simpson's Preston did hold on and left Norwich with a long drive home with no points to show for it. It was on the first day of this season when the teams faced each other last. A 0-0 draw saw an uninspiring start to the season for both teams.
Team News
After Karl Hawley's recent flurry of goals, Irvine isn't expected to make too many changes to the side that beat West Brom in mid week. Youl Mawene will have to make way as he picked up a shoulder injury on Tuesday, along with a red card. This could see an opportunity for new signing Neal Trotman to make his debut. Billy Jones however, completed 60 minutes for the reserves this week and will no doubt be hopeful of a place back in Irvine's squad. Former Norwich striker Chris Brown will have to settle with watching the game from the stands after picking up two yellow cards in North Ends 2-1 win over the Baggies. North End putting one over on his former employers will be at the top of the Durham-born target man's wish.
City's new signings; Matthew Bates, Alex Pearce and James Henry who have signed on loan from Middlesbrough and Reading respectively will be hopeful of being included in Glen Roeder's 16 man squad, as to will Arsenal youngster Kieran Gibbs.