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Deepdale - but without Laws
After reaching their third play off final last year, losing to West Ham, manager Billy Davies has made some changes to the squad and the whole idea was to strengthen that squad but Leeds had other ideas.
The Yorkshire club came in and snatched Eddie Lewis at the end of his contract, so that should reduce the diving antics, during the summer and then a week before the transfer window closed the dangled a million at them to capture Richard Cresswell who was their leading scorer last season with sixteen league goals.
It hasn’t left them without forwards, two of Davies’ four summer signings play up front. They are Dave Hibbert who came from Port Vale on a Bosman and Danny Dichio, the former QPR, Sunderland and West Brom striker who left Millwall (as most players did).
To add to that in came midfielders Joe Anyinsah from Bristol City and Lewis Neal who joined from Stoke with Marlon Broomes going the other way as part of the deal.
Davies also brought in David Jones from Manchester United on loan and then, following the forced sale of Cresswell he brought in former Blackpool forward Adam Nowland on loan from Nottingham Forest.
They have won their last two games and are now moving up the table towards that play off area they finished in last season. Those wins have seen them climb up into 8th place after previously being sat just above the Clarets.
Team News
Lewis Neal, who is still to start a league game for Preston is likely to be ruled out with the neck injury that kept him out of the squad that won at Millwall but other than that Billy Davies should have a full squad to choose from.
He can welcome back Callum Davidson and Youl Mawene who both missed the pleasant trip to London whilst Tyrone Mears is fit despite collecting a facial injury during that game. It would be no surprise though to see Davies continue with the same side which would be:
Carlo Nash, Tyrone Mears, Chris Lucketti, Claude Davis, Matt Hill, David Jones, Brian O’Neil, Paul McKenna, Chris Sedgwick, Danny Dichio, Dave Nugent. Subs from: Andy Lonergen, Graham Alexander, Dickson Etuhu, Adam Nowland, Patrick Agyemang, Callum Davidson, Youl Mawene.
Frank Sinclair’s hamstring could cause Steve Cotterill some further problems. Frank has been playing due to need despite not being fully fit and again on Saturday he had to come off just before the end. It would be no surprise to see him out of the side tonight.
That could see Keith Lowe make his first start, or possibly Michael Duff moving into the centre, Wade Elliott dropping into the right back slot with John Spicer getting his first start.
There are no further problems for Steve and if Frank is fit then we can expect to see the following same side as drew with Cardiff.
Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Gifton Noel-Williams, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Brian Jensen, Keith Lowe, Chris McCann, John Spicer, Karl Bermingham, Kyle Lafferty.
Last Time
This was not the best of games. Burnley had one eye on the cup replay at Ewood but even saw were comfortable against a Preston side that had run out of ideas by about twenty past three.
It would have ended 0-0 but for one of the strangest, and most ridiculous, penalty decisions ever but that seems to be our lot when we play Preston. And needless to say up stepped Graham Alexander to score from the spot.
The game ended with Laws surrounded by Burnley players and staff but as we found out to our cost recently with the Wayne Thomas incident, this is one referee who will never admit he’s made a mistake.
We can only hope that Dermot Gallagher actually applies the rules correctly and that the game can be decided by the two teams.
The teams at Deepdale were,
Preston: Chris Day, Graham Alexander (Claude Davis 90), Youl Mawene, Chris Lucketti, Callum Davidson, Chris Sedgwick, Paul McKenna, Brian O’Neil, Eddie Lewis, Dave Nugent, Richard Cresswell (Patrick Agyemang 90). Subs not used: Matt Hill, Dickson Etuhu, Andy Smith.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Gary Cahill, Michael Duff, Mo Camara, John Oster, Graham Branch, Tony Grant, Pete Whittingham, Jean-Louis Valois, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Mark Yates, Cayne Hanley.
And more significantly the referee was Graham Laws (Whitley Bay).
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1985/86 | 4 | a | 0-1 | 5,585 | . |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 3,835 | Deakin |
1986/87 | 4 | h | 1-4 | 5,974 | James(pen) |
| . | . | a | 1-2 | 10,716 | Parker |
1987/88 | SV | h | 0-0 | 15,680 | . |
| . | . | a | 3-1aet | 17,592 | Oghani Hoskin Comstive |
1989/90 | LD | a | 0-3 | 5,241 | . |
1990/91 | LD | a | 1-6 | 12,016 | Bray |
1992/93 | 2 | a | 0-2 | 7,209 | . |
| . | . | h | 2-0 | 12,648 | Heath(2) |
1993/94 | LC | a | 2-1 | 6,283 | Davis Eyres |
. | . | h | 4-1 | 9,346 | Deary Eyres Francis Russell |
. | AG | a | 1-2 | 4,485 | Eyres |
1996/97 | 2 | a | 1-1 | 12,652 | Nogan |
| . | . | h | 1-2 | 16,186 | Barnes |
1997/98 | 2 | h | 1-1 | 13,809 | Cooke |
. | . | a | 3-2 | 12,263 | Payton Cooke N Moore |
. | AW | h | 1-0 | 10,079 | Payton |
1998/99 | 2 | a | 1-4 | 15,888 | Eastwood |
| . | AW | h | 0-1 | 3,366 | . |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 11,561 | . |
1999/2000 | 2 | a | 0-0 | 13,708 | . |
| . | . | h | 0-3 | 22,310 | . |
2000/01 | 1 | a | 1-2 | 17,355 | Moore |
| . | . | h | 3-0 | 16,591 | Moore Ball Little |
2001/02 | 1 | a | 3-2 | 20,370 | Gnohere(2) Little |
| . | . | h | 2-1 | 18,388 | I Moore Johnson |
2002/03 | 1 | a | 1-3 | 16,046 | Taylor |
| . | . | h | 2-0 | 12,245 | Blake Papadopoulos |
2003/04 | 1 | a | 3-5 | 18,802 | I Moore Gnohere Blake(pen) |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 15,837 | Blake |
2004/05 | C | h | 2-0 | 15,318 | Blake(2) |
| . | . | a | 0-1 | 18,202 | . |
Click HERE
to see all our results against Preston, and our first league meeting was our very first Football League game.