Our prediction for this Championship match:
Bramall Lane will host Tuesday’s Championship clash between Sheffield United and Preston. The Blades desperately needed a win against Peterborough United, and they managed to get one in style, with the team crushing the Posh 6-2. Talented midfielder Lliman Ndiaye should keep his place in the starting XI after scoring a brace at the weekend, while all David McGoldrick, Lys Mousset, Enda Stevens, and Jack O’Connell remain in the recovery room.
The likes of Robin Olsen, Ben Davies, and Sander Berge have been tested positive for coronavirus. The Lilywhites, on the other hand, played out a goalless draw with Bristol City in their last league match. Preston are undefeated in the previous three league fixtures, but given Sheffield United’s display in the crushing of Peterborough, we predict that the visitors will return home empty-handed. All Tom Barkhuizen, Isaiah Brown, and Matthew Olosunde are out of contention for the visiting team.
Highlighted Player (Jack Rodwell):
Once an exciting midfielder talent who left his boyhood club Everton for Manchester City in 2012, Jack Rodwell has been attracting plenty of criticism over the past couple of years due to the lack of playing time and refusal to leave the Etihad, despite being on the margins with Citizens.
Rodwell joined Everton’s academy when he was eight and soared through the ranks to emerge as one of the key players for the Merseyside club during his five-year stay with the Toffees. A talked-about £15 million move to City turned into a largely disappointing two-year stint with the Citizens, before Rodwell moved to Sunderland.
Having largely struggled to replicate his flying form from his time at Everton, Rodwell signed for the Championship club Blackburn Rovers in 2018 for the remainder of the season, in a bid to get his career back on track. Rodwell represented England through all youth ranks up to the senior side, for which he only managed three caps.
Highlighted Team (Preston):
Preston North End or Preston were founded in 1880. The Lilywhites or the Invincibles play their home games at Deepdale, the stadium that was built in 1875 and opened three years later.
In 1889 Preston won their first FA Cup trophy and they did well to beat Huddersfield Town in the final of the 1938 FA Cup final. However, the club’s biggest success came in 1889 and 1890 when they won back-to-back domestic trophies (First Division).
Preston have yet to win the League Cup title, but they were runners-up in 1888, 1922, 1937, 1954, 1964. Preston’s main rivals are Blackpool and the two teams square off against each other in the West Lancashire derby. In their first ever meeting in the West Lancashire derby (1901) Preston recorded a 4-1 win over Blackpool.
Burnley and Blackburn Rovers are considered Preston’s big rivals as well. The colour of Preston’s shirts is white and they wear dark blue shorts.