Preston North End Vs Wigan Althletic Pre-season Match Preview

Last updated : 28 July 2009 By Paul Neat

Preston North End Vs Wigan Athletic    

Pre-Season Friendly Tuesday 28th July 2009 KO 19:45

Roberto Martinez’ Wigan are the latest side looking to bring North End’s unbeaten pre-season record to an abrupt end. The Latics visit Deepdale tonight and will become the second Premiership team to do so in under a week.

Roberto Martinez

That other Premier League club was Stoke City who travelled up the M6 on Saturday looking to secure their first win this summer. On the other hand, a similar result to Preston’s 2-1 win over Stoke would delight both fans and players alike heading into the closing weeks of pre-season.

Wigan will be a different sort of challenge for Preston though and could be the chalk compared to the proverbial cheese of Stoke City. Whilst Tony Pulis’ side gave Alan Irvine’s men a more physical match, the Latics, particularly under Martinez, will be trying to play Preston off their own park. If Martinez’ Swansea City side are anything to go by then this will certainly be the case.

North End fans won’t need reminding of the last time the Lilywhites came up against a Roberto Martinez’ side; a 2-0 defeat at Deepdale before an embarrassing 4-1 landslide at the Liberty Stadium ensured Swansea did the double of Alan Irvine’s side.

Neil Mellor

Previous Meetings

The last time Preston and Stoke met was during the 2004/2005 season when North End reached the playoff final and Wigan gained automatic promotion.

The most recent encounter was on Saturday 30th April 2005 at Deepdale when Lee McCulloch put the visitors ahead on 24 minutes after smashing the ball in from close range from a Jimmy Bullard free-kick.

North End equalised just before half-time through former Celtic midfielder Brian O’Neil, though. Nugent won a free kick outside the box on the left which was taken by Sedgwick. The former Rotherham winger floated a perfect ball to the far post where O'Neil was unmarked to plant a header into the back of the net.

The reverse fixture was an afternoon that both the North End players and fans alike would rather forget. A truly embarrassing 5-0 hammering was inflicted on the Lilywhites on the 5th December in what turned out to be quite literally a nightmare before Christmas.

In total, North End and Wigan have played each other 42 times in competitive competition. Preston have the edge in terms of wins with 16 compared to Wigan’s 13 and 13 draws. Wigan have scored one more goal though; 63 as opposed to Preston’s 62.

Team News

Andrew Lonergan

Much like the Stoke match, goalkeeper Wayne Henderson will be hoping for another 45 minutes in goal whilst the likes of Darren Carter and Barry Nicholson will be looking to stake a claim for the void left by Paul McKenna on a regular basis.

Stephen Elliott will be looking to return after recovering from the injury that has kept him out of all of North End’s previous friendly outings. The former Sunderland striker narrowly missed out on a place in the side that beat Stoke after gaffer Alan Irvine deemed him to be not quite fit enough.

Meanwhile, Jason Scotland could be in-line to make his first appearance in a Wigan shirt following his transfer from Swansea.