Preston North End look like EFL Championship dark horses - Spurs & Aston Villa will be buzzing | OneFootball

Preston North End have made a fantastic start to the EFL Championship this season, thanks in no small part to loanees Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin

Few will have seen Preston North End’s fantastic start to this Championship season coming after they finished 20th in the table in 2024/25, but the first two months of the campaign have been excellent for Paul Heckingbottom’s side.

From seven games played in the league so far, Preston have managed four impressive wins, two draws, and just the one banana skin defeat away at Portsmouth. They are fifth in the table at this point, level on points with both Leicester City and Bristol City just above them.

Lots of players in the PNE squad are enjoying stellar runs of form right now and have been key to their early success, but since the end of the September international break, the contributions of late summer loanees Alfie Devine and Lewis Dobbin, in particular, have been very hard to ignore.

After a turbulent 2024/25 campaign, Preston North End are playing well above expectations this time around

Last season was not a great one for Preston. They let one manager go after the first game, let their temporary management team go after the second game, and wound up finishing 20th after a winless April, needing a final day draw with Bristol City to keep them afloat.

Then, in the summer, the club oversaw the departure of starting goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, top Championship scorer Emil Riis, midfield terrier Ryan Ledson and promising youngster Kian Best, all for free.

With that in mind, few gave North End much a chance to compete in this season’s Championship, including BBC Radio Lancashire’s Andy Bayes, and pundits Aaron Paul and Jobi McAnuff, from the 72+ podcast.

With half the transfer window having passed, PNE had addressed their goalkeeper woes with the return of Daniel Iversen and imported League One standouts Odel Offiah and Thierry Small, among other new names. Yet, 21st in the table was as good as Paul Heckingbottom’s side were given as a prediction.

To Bayes’ credit, he did say that “the supply line to the forwards could do with supplementing”, and this analysis was made before the arrivals of Devine and Dobbin, and the deadline day loan of Harrison Armstrong from Everton, all of whom have the potential to fill that role.

Devine had arrived at Deepdale by the time Opta published their supercomputer predictions in August though, which relegated Preston 19.6% of the time – the fifth most of any team – from 10,000 simulations that were run.

Despite what the experts said in the summer, the facts are that Preston have had to contend with arguably the toughest start to 2025/26 in terms of who they’ve faced, and they’ve repeatedly smashed it out of the park.

They’ve beaten newly relegated Leicester City and Ipswich Town, became the first team in the league this season to take points away from league leaders Middlesbrough, and most recently, battered Derby County in their own backyard during the first half before showing their defensive resilience in the second to eke out maximum points.

The Lilywhites are playing to their strengths in all areas of the field – their defence has been fixed and sturdy, conceding the joint-second fewest goals of any Championship team so far; and midfield duo Ali McCann and captain Ben Whiteman are everywhere at once.

In addition, star striker Milutin Osmajic, who was valued at £15m amid summer transfer speculation, couldn’t stop scoring until getting injured just before the Pompey defeat. Most recently, Devine and Dobbin in attacking midfield have given PNE a bit of Premier League quality.

Alfie Devine came through the doors at Deepdale in early August on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, with prior EFL experience already under his belt from loan spells with Port Vale and Plymouth.

“I like to make people excited. I like to get on the ball. I like to always be involved in it and get people off their seats hopefully,” he said in an interview on the club's website.

His full debut came in Preston’s second league game of the campaign against Leicester. He opened the scoring in that 2-1 win for his new side from a tight angle after beating sweeper-keeper Jakub Stolarczyk to a loose ball just outside the penalty area. His second goal for the club came last weekend against Derby – a postage stamp strike from the edge of the box.

His drive and determination to attack the opposition was on show immediately with his first goal, and his efforts since his arrival have been recognised by the fans, with “Alfie Devine, Olé Olé” ringing out from the stands during every game in which he has featured.

No doubt this has helped Devine feel more at home at Deepdale, who told the club website after the Derby victory: “I think this is the quickest that I've ever been comfortable within a group because then it shows on the pitch when you play. That's a credit to the fans, my teammates and the staff”.

Devine’s direct attacking approach has been further complimented by another temporary PNE player, who arrived two weeks after he did – Aston Villa wide man Lewis Dobbin.

Wingers have been in short supply at Deepdale ever since the implementation of a five-back formation that has persisted since the days of Alex Neil’s managerial tenure. But when Dobbin arrived at the club, he, like Devine, told the club website: “I want to be effective in as many positions as possible on the pitch… I just want to get on the pitch and excite people.”

Exciting the fans is exactly what he has done so far, playing mostly as a second striker. It took just seven minutes for him to get off the mark in PNE colours, placing a strike in the top corner in a 3-2 defeat to Wrexham in the EFL Cup.

He followed that up with an even more impressive strike against Middlesbrough right after the international break, driving 25 yards from the edge of the centre circle to blast a strike into the top left corner from the edge of the box.

Even against former club Derby over the weekend, despite not scoring again, he was a repeated nuisance for the Rams’ backline, making difficult runs into dangerous areas and almost winning a penalty in the early stages before Devine’s goal.

These are all actions that the PNE faithful will not get sick of seeing from their players anytime soon.

Everybody wins if PNE’s great form continues – including Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa

Preston have had many memorable loanees come through their ranks who’ve gone on to great things – David Beckham, Danny Welbeck, Jordan Pickford, Anthony Gordon, Alvaro Carreras, the list goes on – but if things carry on the way they are, they might have two playing for them together right now.

Devine and Dobbin being two of the first names on Heckingbottom’s team sheet right now is great news for Spurs and Villa. Neither player has had a sniff of Premier League football for their parent clubs to this point, but their contributions in the Championship can only make the higher-ups in North London and Birmingham prick up their ears.

Potential opportunities could arise as their parent-clubs juggle ridiculous schedules. Or, their transfer fees will be flying up, and they will be sold for healthy money against a PSR backdrop.

When you consider that they are strutting their stuff so impressively for a Preston team that are currently defying expectations, that pair could end up being the ultimate winners from these successful-looking loans.