Preston North End Vs Birmingham City
Coca-Cola Championship Saturday 13th December 2008 5:20 Kick-off
Alex McLeish's high-flying Birmingham City are the next team to visit Deepdale in front of the television cameras for Saturday's teatime kick-off. The Blues are currently on a seven game unbeaten streak and have lost just twice on the road this season. However when Birmingham visited Deepdale last time, a Simon Whaley goal made sure of a Preston win and that Birmingham would finish second in the Championship table and not go up as champions.
The Lilywhites managed to bounce back from their defeat to Cardiff City at the weekend with a hard fought win over Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night. Jon Parkin came off the bench to net his first goal in Preston colours to stake a claim for a place in the starting line-up this Saturday.
Previous Meetings
As mentioned above, the last time Birmingham visited Deepdale the Blues had to win to make sure they went up as champions in the 2006/2007 season. A Simon Whaley goal in the 85th minute dented any hopes of that ensuring that Sunderland went up as champions instead.
The reverse fixture ended in a 3-1 home win for the Blues. A hat-trick from Gary McSheffrey gave Birmingham the points with Brett Ormerod netting on the stroke of half-time for Preston. At Deepdale Preston have had the upper hand in terms of victories having recorded 24 wins over a mere 6 for Birmingham.
Team News
Billy Jones is expected to shake off a hamstring problem in time but Eddie Nolan is poised to step in should the former Crewe man not be deemed ready. After Jon Parkin's goal on Tuesday, the burley striker is widely expected to partner Stephen Elliott in attack whilst Neil Mellor should be fit enough for the bench.