Preston V Pool

The day is almost upon us Blackpool V Preston the West Lancashire Derby!!

Former seaside favourite Brett Ormerod may miss the match after picking up a calf injury Injury. If he does miss out he should be replaced by Paul Gallagher. Former Crewe defender Billy Jones is also pushing to be fit. After Paul Simpson left the club former Everton assistant Alan Irivine has been placed at the helm. His start was poor, losing three games on the trot, Irvine picked up his first win on Tuesday night with a 3-0 home win against hull (one of those goals was a really bad deflection). The supports have yet to get 100% behind Ivine with many looking for a more experience manager to take up the helm.

The problems have been upfront for the lilywhites ever since golden boy David Nuget left for Pompy, (great move dave!). The goal problem forced Simpson to bring in Gallagher in on loan from Blackburn. Summer signing from Carlisle Karl Hawley has only managed one goal so far. Top scorer so far is Patrick Agyemang who has only manged 4, his last one coming in the 3-0 win over Hull.

Oh and Preston haven`t sold all their tickets

Tomorrow will be 329th league start for his only team, the Chorley born midfielder missed the back end of last season and the start of this seasons campaign with injury. Sitting in the middle of the park for some McKenna makes Preston tick.

Keith Southern and Bartosz Slusarski are doubts after the pair picked up ankle injuries in the QPR game last Saturday. Slusarski has a glimmer of hope as he nearly made the squad for the Scunthorpe match. For Southern his injury is one that has been causing problems for some time so he may be out of action for some time.

Captain Michael Jackson returns to Deepdale where he spent 7 years as a player and team captain, he will partner Kasper Gorkss in the middle of defence in front of Paul Rabchubka in goal. Stephen Crainey will take up the left back position with Shaun Barker on the right. The midfield is also set to be unchanged with Fox and Jorgensen in the middle, Wes Hoolahan starting on the left and Gary Taylor-Fletcher on the right, both will change sides during the match. Ben Burgess is set to continue upfront and with either Andy Morel and Keigan Parker partnering him.

Only Danny Coid and John Hills remain at the club from the last meeting of the clubs, for the starting 11 it will be their first taste of a Blackpool V Preston derby.

Although he might not start but I`ve got a feeling that tomorrow the little Scot who scored 16 goals last season will grab his first of the season, that or get send off, lets hope its the first one.

The last visit to Deepdale ended in a 3-0 win for the home side, Eryes with a brace and one from Appleton. Previous to that match was the now famous 2-1 win, when Barry Shuttleworth crossed to Brett Ormerod to make it 2-1.

Blackpool have some famous victories at Deepdale, 0-7 Blackpool in 1948 and 0-3 in 1970 which resulted in the Seasiders being promoted and Preston being relegated. Lets hope for a victory tomorrow which can go down in history.

M Clattenburg - Tyne and Wear - Games: 13 Yellow Cards: 43 Red Cards: 4 - 5th in the MIB league
N Bannister and A Butler
Fourth Official J Moss

Preston 1 - 2 Blackpool

Football League Championship Cardiff H 11-12-2007

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