Our Focus turns to tonight’s trip to Deepdale as Fulham take on out of form Preston North End. Parker’s side were on a run of four consecutive wins until last weekends controversial defeat to Bristol City. In contrast, our opponents find themselves on a 4 match run of their own but not the type you’d be putting on your Christmas wish list. Alex Neil’s side have lost their last 4 without scoring, a landslide they will be desperate to halt in front of the Sky Cameras this evening.
Let’s hope we are talking about the prospect of catching the top two at full time and not the referee!
Head To Head
- Fulham Wins 30 | Draws 12 | Preston Wins 24.
- Fulham are unbeaten at Deepdale in the new millennium. Our last defeat came in November 1997.
- We are unbeaten in 7 against the PNE and have only lost 1 of the past 11 meetings.
- Both teams have scored in the last 7 matches against each other.
- The clubs have met in all four divisions and twice in the FA Cup but never the League Cup.
- Our last 3 visits to Deepdale have resulted in 1-2 victories.
- The last 5 occasions when Fulham haven’t scored against Preston have resulted in 1-0 defeats, dating back to 1987.
- There have only been three 0-0’s in the 66 fixtures between the sides.
- Fulham have scored in 20 of the last 23 matches against PNE.
Preston in 2019/20
- League Position: 7th
- League Form: LLLLW
- Average Possesion: 51%
- Top Scorers: Daniel Johnson (8), Tom Barkhuizen (7)
- Form Table (Last 6 Matches): 17th (6pts)
- Clean sheets: 4
- Discipline: 32 Yellows | 0 Red
- Both teams have scored in 10 of their 20 league matches.
- They have lost their last 4 without scoring.
Players in Common
Dickson Etuhu
Fulham: 127 apps, 6 goals (2008-2012).
PNE: 149 apps, 18 goals (2002-2006).
Gary Brazil, Mike Conroy, Dickson Etuhu, David Healy, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Lewis, Andy Lonergan, Brian McBride, Billy McKinlay, Gavin Nebbeling & Ben Pringle.
Sam’s View (@SamCole2468)
Following a controversial defeat to a frustrating Bristol City side, our match against Preston is of an even greater importance. Each week we find ourselves slipping further away from the automatic places with Leeds and West Brom currently looking unstoppable. Preston however should be seen as a great opportunity to get back on track following their sudden turn of poor form.
With Leeds coming up soon we need to recapture the form we were showing in our recent four match winning run. With inform Kamara being surprisingly dropped for Knockaert he has to be reintroduced following his appearance off the bench on Saturday. He made us look more dangerous going forward and grabbed our only goal in the loss. Kebano is another player that in my view has earned a start following a very positive thirteen-minute cameo where he should have won us a penalty (Jeremy Simpson is a disgrace). Onomah’s frustrating performances against Swansea and Bristol City have illustrated that he should not be in the starting eleven making Decordova-Reid’s recovery from injury even more urgent. Preston are on a terrible run, I say let’s go for the jugular and play players on merit. A 442 formation with Kamara alongside Mitro, TC and StefJo in midfield and Kebano replacing Knockaert down the right will really test Preston’s mindset and their inevitable lack of confidence at present.
With a win needed to keep our automatic promotion dreams alive I think we will win 2-0 away in Lancashire with Mitro scoring twice.
