Preston North End head to Hillsborough on Saturday for their second away game of the season. They’ve started the Championship campaign with four points, following up an opening day draw at Bristol City with a home win over Sunderland.
Ryan Lowe has named the same starting eleven for both of those games, and with encouraging performances it wouldn’t be a surprise if he named the same team again.
Preston are still limited with their options as Emil Riis and Ched Evans remain long-term absentees. Ben Whiteman hasn’t played for some time, and Lowe won’t rush him back. Robbie Brady remains injured, and Calvin Ramsay; signed on loan from Liverpool in the summer has suffered a setback and will be out for between six and eight weeks.
The players waiting in the wings on the substitutes bench for the first two games who could come into the starting line-up are mainly made up of inexperienced youth players. The only subs to have come on so far in the league are Duane Holmes, Ben Woodburn and Jack Whatmough.
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After some promising displays off the bench as well as in the cup, I think we could see one of those players make it into the starting eleven for Saturday.
Here’s a predicted starting eleven and substitutes for the game against Sheffield Wednesday:
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Starting XI: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts, Best, Browne, McCann, Holmes, Frokjaer; Keane
Substitutes: Cornell, Cunningham, Bauer, Whatmough, Leigh, Ledson, Taylor, Woodburn, Rodriguez-Gentile
I think we could see Holmes get the nod ahead of Ledson. He’s shown good energy in his games so far, and with Sheffield Wednesday losing their first two games, I think Holmes can help us get on the front foot early on. He’s also very good at pressing which could cause Wednesday to make a few mistakes.
I don’t see any changes on the bench aside from Ledson swapping with Holmes. Lowe doesn’t have that many options available to him, but could look at bringing in Noah Mawene for someone.
Sheffield Wednesday are likely to have Bambo Diaby starting for them after his switch in the summer, whilst Jordan Storey will be making his first return to Hillsborough since his loan spell two seasons ago.