EFL: PNEFC vs BCFC

Preston North End know that there will only be victory over Birmingham this weekend if they want to keep their fragile hope of promotion to the Championship in the playoffs. Lilywhites were 5 points behind the playoffs with the remaining 2 games but they were in poor shape, while Birmingham also struggled to win the last round and fell to 19th.

The host has no center-back Ben Davies against Brentford and that is expected to happen this weekend. Ben Pearson also missed, while Alan Browne was only fit for a spot on the bench, but both of these players could try to start from the start. Elsewhere, Paul Huntington returned after banning three rounds before but remained on the bench for 90 minutes. Preston went on vacation due to the covid position of the last play-off position, one point better than the closest chasing team Bristol, however, Alex Neil's army has won only one of six matches since there and is on the way to another Championship season. The latest defeat took place at Brentford soaring on Wednesday, only 1 victory in 10 matches for Neil's team and now they have to beat Birmingham and Bristol to have any hope of reaching the top 6.

Stars are highly appreciated Jude Bellingham is rumored to have traveled to Germany to undergo a medical operation with Borussia Dortmund and is therefore very suspicious for this match. Ivan Sunjic and Gary Gardner started as midfield midweek and that can be maintained and Lukas Jutkiewicz has scored 2 goals in the last 3 games and probably a young striker but Jayden Reid will push Scott Hogan onto the bench to kick the center back. No team has been in worse shape than Birmingham since the tournament returned last month, which led to Pep Clotet's resignation early last week, the replacement of Clotet being rumored to be a former captain of Wigan Athletic, Paul Cook, but the Blues had a 1-1 draw on Wednesday with Charlton Athletic helped them leave five points behind the relegation group.