Preston v Blackburn: Draw appeals at Deepdale | OneFootball

EFL Championship

Preston have picked up solid back-to-back draws

Preston and Blackburn cross swords in a Lancashire derby on Sunday afternoon from the Championship. Betfair writer Mark O'Haire is expecting a tight encounter in the early kick-off...

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Preston v BlackburnSunday September 22, 12:00Live on Sky Sports

Preston progress in the EFL Cup

Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted he was over the moon after seeing his North End side seal a historic penalty shootout win over Fulham in Tuesday night's EFL Cup third round clash. The Lilywhites knocked out the Premier League side in the competition's longest ever shootout - PNE triumphed 16-15 after playing out a 1-1 draw in 90 minutes.

Ryan Ledson scored the winning penalty after Timothy Castagne blazed over the bar for Fulham with Heckingbottom saying post-match, "The effort and commitment to get to penalties, I think we were the team - certainly in injury time - trying to get there. We put a lot into it and had a couple of bodies creaking on the pitch. It was a great atmosphere."

Liam Lindsey returned from suspension to bolster the Preston rearguard, whilst Stefan Thordardson was back in the starting XI after missing out last week through illness. But Will Keane was again absent as he deals with a minor hamstring issue. Deadline day recruit Josh Bowler enjoyed his first start for the Lilywhites in midweek and will hope to keep his place.

Blackburn enjoying unbeaten start

Blackburn boss John Eustace believes Rovers are benefitting from being patient about results last season after a brilliant start to the new campaign. Rovers (W3-D2-L0) are enjoying their best return after five fixtures since 1997/98 with performances showing significant improvement on last term where the club came close to suffering relegation.

Eustace emphasised that Blackburn are benefitting from the work that ensured they were harder to beat last term, saying: "A hell of a lot of hard work went into keeping us in the Championship last year. A lot of fight, desire, which we've added to the group in the right areas. We're halfway through a build now and we're getting the rewards at the moment."

Callum Brittain, Harry Pickering and Arnor Sigurdsson all missed Blackburn's 3-0 win over Bristol City last time out where Yuki Ohashi kept up his remarkable start to his Rovers career with two fabulous second-half finishes. Lewis Travis broke the deadlock before half-time, though Aynsley Pears was called into plenty of action as Blackburn were put under pressure.

Draw a runner at Deepdale

Preston are unbeaten in four fixtures against regional rivals Blackburn (W2-D2-L0), however, the pair have played out back-to-back draws at Deepdale where North End have found Rovers a tough nut to crack over the past decade (W3-D2-L3). The Lilywhites have failed to secure top honours in four successive home games against Blackburn (W0-D2-L2).

Despite being under the pump for the most part, Preston 2.90 picked up a creditable point at Middlesbrough last weekend and their midweek efforts against Fulham have displayed an element of fortitude since Paul Heckingbottom's appointment. The Lilywhites toppled Luton here in their last home outing and the hosts are interesting outsiders for Sunday's clash.

Underlying performance data metrics suggest Blackburn 2.64 have overperformed thus far - Rovers have played out draws in each of their away days thus far and have now posted W3-D5-L3 on their travels since John Eustace arrived last season. The visitors look a touch too short to support here with the Draw a far more interesting option at 3.35.

Tight tussle in-store at Deepdale

Early EFL kick-offs have seen a significant downturn in goals per-game outputs this season with 25 (69%) of the 36 matches played before the traditional 3pm start seeing Under 2.5 Goals collect. That includes each of the last six Championship contests with a kick-off time between midday and 2pm, and Sunday's showdown falls into that same category.

With Preston posting just a 2.34 Expected Goals (xG) average across their first five dates, and Blackburn returning an even lower xG average of 2.13 thus far, there's plenty of evidence to suggest their weekend meeting might go low on goals with Under 2.5 Goals trading at a reasonable 1.80 on the Exchange.

However, I'll be greedy and instead snap-up the 11/4 on the Sportsbook for the Draw and Under 2.5 Goals, cheering on the 0-0 and 1-1 stalemate.

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Back the Draw and Under 2.5 Goals @ 11/4