Preston North End vs Birmingham City Live Stream, Predictions

📏 Form Guide

Preston North End

WDLWWL

Preston North End will be hoping to bounce back here after a 2-1 FA Cup defeat last time out to Cardiff City.

In that game, Preston North End had 60% possession and 8 attempts at goal with 1 of them on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Preston North End was Daniel Johnson (54'). On the other side, Cardiff City had 7 attempts at goal with 4 on target. Isaak Davies (42') and Mark Harris (116') scored for Cardiff City. The match went to extra time and was won by Cardiff City.

It has not been often in recent games that Preston North End haven’t conceded. The reality is that Preston North End have been scored against in 6 of their previous 6 clashes, leaking 7 goals during that time. That kind of trend isn’t assured to be continued into this next game, however.

Their past results show that Preston North End:

• haven't been beaten in the league by Birmingham City in their last 2 matches.
• haven't been defeated in their previous 2 league matches at home.

Birmingham City

WLDLLL 📉

Following on from being defeated in their last game at the hands of Plymouth Argyle in FA Cup competition, Birmingham City will be hoping to turn things around here.

Ryan Law (104') scored for Plymouth Argyle. The match was eventually decided in extra time and won by Plymouth Argyle.

The stats don’t lie, and Birmingham City have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, seeing their opponents hit 12 goals overall. Defensively, Birmingham City could really do with shoring things up.

↔️ Head to head

A look at their past head to head meetings dating back to 16/03/2019 tells us that Preston North End have won 4 of them & Birmingham City 1, with the tally of drawn games standing at 1.

An aggregate of 8 goals were scored between the two sides in this period, with 6 for The Lilywhites and 2 created by The Blues. The average number of goals per game works out to 1.33.

📋 Team News: Preston North End

There’s just one fitness concern for the Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe to contend with from an otherwise complete set of players. Matthew Olosunde (Groin Injury) is sidelined.

It’s our opinion that The Lilywhites may well kick off with a 3-5-2 formation for the game, utilising Daniel Iversen, Jordan Storey, Patrick Bauer, Andrew Hughes, Sepp van den Berg, Alan Browne, Daniel Johnson, Ben Whiteman, Josh Earl, Sean Maguire and Emil Riis Jakobsen.

📋 Team News: Birmingham City

Thanks to a mainly healthy group, there is only the one fitness issue for the Birmingham City boss Lee Bowyer to contend with. Matija Sarkic (Shoulder Injury) won’t be playing here.

There’s a good chance that The Blues seem most likely to elect for a 4-3-1-2 system, giving starts to Neil Etheridge, Maxime Colin, Teden Mengi, Kristian Pedersen, J. Familia-Castillo, Gary Gardner, Ivan Sunjic, Jordan James, Tate Campbell, Chuks Aneke and Scott Hogan.

✨ Prediction

Looking at these two teams, we feel that Birmingham City should get enough chances to score against this Preston North End lineup, although that is unlikely to prevent them from conceding a couple at the other end.

We’re tipping a tight encounter finishing with a 2-1 winning score for Preston North End at the end of this one. Should be an interesting one.

Our expert partners are tipping over 1.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 00:55 11/01/2022