On 26th of December, we will see 2 mid-table teams going against each other in the 24th round of Championship at Deepdale stadium in Preston.
Preston are currently 15th in the league with an overall record of 7-7-9 and a 2-1-2 in the past 5 games. In the span of those 5 games, Preston played a draw against Middlesbrough (1:1), lost to Birmingham, Sheffield Wed (1:0) and won against Nottingham (0:1) and Millwall (3:2). In their most recent match, Preston played against Sheffield Wed at Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield. The match was dominated by Sheffield who had 57% ball possession 16 goal attempts and 4 shots on goal. Preston on the other side had 43% ball possession, 4 goal attempts and only 1 shot on goal. Despite a total of 20 goal attempts from both teams combined, we saw only 1 goal being scored in the 62nd minute by Sheffield. We could say that the match changed its course and saw Preston underperforming due to the red card Preston player received in the 26th minute. Final score: 1:0.
Hull are currently sitting at 16th place in the league with an overall record of 7-6-10 and are currently on a 2 game winning streak. In the past 2 games, they have won against Brentford (0:2) and against Swansea (3:2) in their most recent match. In the match against Swansea, Hull suffered an early goal, which was scored by Bony in the 3rd minute of the match. In the 39th minute, Hull was awarded a penalty but Boven missed it, thus the teams went into the 2nd half 1 goal apart. In the 2nd half, we did not see a goal until the 70th minute when Hull scored 2 goals in quick succession (70th and 76th minute), which got them a 1 goal lead. Only 4 minutes later Boven scored his 2nd goal, as an apology for the missed penalty and with that Hull was 2 goals up (3:1). Swansea did manage to squeeze in another goal in the 88th minute but it was too late too little for them to win or even draw the match. Final score: 3:2.
Hull managed to bounce back in their recent match against Swansea after trailing by a goal from the 3rd minute and missed penalty. On the other side, Preston played their last match with only 10 men and with Pearson out for this fixture, that will cause some problems in their defence. Looking at the last matches when Pearson was missing from the squad, Preston played a few high scoring matches and I believe this will be the case in this fixture. Neither of the teams are the kind to play passive football, which can be seen in their recent results. Hull has scored 10 goals and conceded 6 in their last 5 games, while Preston scored 5 and conceded 7 in the same amount of matches. In away games, Hull has scored 9 and conceded 8 in the last 5 fixtures and played quite a high scoring matches in the past 3; against Birmingham (3:3), QPR (2:3) and Millwall (2:2). Same goes for Preston at home games, where they scored 13 and conceded 8 in the last 5 played. All in all, this should be an interesting match with plenty of scoring. I would be surprised if we won’t see at least 3 goals.
Prediction: Over 2.50 goals
