This is one of the times I?m grateful my remit is a preview, not a prediction.

On top of my hopeless record at prediction, games involving Preston are notoriously hard to forecast. Even within the glorious general unpredictability of the Championship, their results stand out as enigmatic.

Especially at Deepdale.

At home last season they beat, among others, Middlesbrough, Leeds and Ipswich. And lost to QPR, Cardiff and Stoke.

What sense can you make of that"

Staying for a moment with last season, City?s two games with them were at the extremes of memorability. A 0-0 draw at Carrow Road in December 2023 was eminently forgettable. The return at Deepdale in April, though, was pivotal to the playoff ambitions of both.
Gabby Sara?s 86th-minute winner virtually sealed Preston?s fate of staying in the Championship, and virtually sealed ours of being in the playoffs.

Six months later, both teams find themselves under very different management. The Hoffball project is so engrossing, and so pleasing when it works, that we barely miss Gabby Sara.

Preston?s change is as dramatic. Under Ryan Lowe, they conceded fewer goals than City last season but were by far the lowest scorers of the top ten.

Lowe was replaced in late August by Paul Heckingbottom, who?s remembered with some affection at Norwich despite only playing 15 games for us back in 2002-03.

His main mark, though, has been as manager of Sheffield United between 2021 and last year. After steadyi...