Preston North End look to get first home win over Lancashire rivals Burnley

It’s the return of a Lancashire derby as Vincent Kompany’s Burnley make the trip to the west side of Lancashire to face Preston North End under the Deepdale lights.

A number of years have passed since the two sides faced off in competitive action with the last meeting coming back in 2015/16 when Burnley ran out 1-0 victors at Deepdale thanks to a Joey Barton deflected free-kick.

That year was a successful season for both clubs with it being North End’s first season back in the second tier whilst Burnley won promotion to the Premier League finishing champions, Preston being one of only two teams to beat them on home soil that year (Reading being the other).

With that season being Burnley’s latest in the second tier, fans are relishing the chance to visit some old famous grounds that the Clarets haven’t seen in a few years whilst hoping they can make the most of their summer spending to make an immediate return to the top-flight.

Kompany’s side have started slightly inconsistently but the style of football is clear for all to see and it appears the Clarets’ fans are relishing what they are watching in comparison to Sean Dyche’s style of play which was no stranger to criticism across his nine-and-a-half-year tenure despite keeping Burnley in the Premier League on a number of occasions.

The Belgian’s men currently sit fifth in the Championship with three wins and four draws from their opening eight games – their only defeat coming against fellow relegated side Watford. That’s five places and two points ahead of rivals Preston who have had a fairly unusual start to the campaign in Ryan Lowe’s first full season in charge at Deepdale.

The Lilywhites have broken personal records whilst equalling some within English football history as they kept seven clean sheets from their first seven games, finally conceding last time out in a 1-0 home defeat to Birmingham City.

But whilst they’ve kept the back door shut tremendously, they’ve struggled to score at the other end of the pitch and to many fans’ frustrations, failed to add another forward option towards the end of the window despite the obvious missing piece of the jigsaw.

Prior to the season starting, fans seemed concerned about defensive options after losing Daniel Iversen and Sepp Van den Berg whose respective loan deals expired. But with a back three of Liam Lindsay, Jordan Storey and Andrew Hughes in addition to goalkeeper and new signing Freddie Woodman, Preston hold the best defensive record in the country.

Lindsay was recently nominated for the EFL Championship Player of the Month award for August after North End superbly went the entire month without conceding and should there have been a few more goals at the other end, the Lilywhites would be right up there within the high flyers in the Championship.

But as it happens, they sit in a more familiar position of mid-table and look to cause an upset on Tuesday night in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

As far as team news goes, the home side have virtually a fully fit squad to choose from with just summer signing Ben Woodman the absentee who will be out until the start of October.

And as far as the visitors are concerned, they could potentially have Scott Twine back from injury as Kompany described his situation as ‘really close’ to being back to fitness ahead of Tuesday’s derby.

With the Clarets being backed with a sold-out away end of around 5,500, it’s sure to be some atmosphere come 8pm on Tuesday night and there’s always something special about derby games under the lights.

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