Sports Mole previews Wednesday's Championship fixture between Queens Park Rangers and Preston North End, including predictions, team news and lineups.

Two mid-table sides meet at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium this coming Wednesday as Preston North End travel to Queens Park Rangers.

Rangers enter this fixture after a well-fought draw away to in-form Bournemouth, while Preston suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff City.

Match preview

QPR boss Mark Warburton on February 1, 2020 © Reuters

Rangers manager Mark Warburton will be encouraged by his team's performance away to Bournemouth on Saturday and will hope to take that momentum into Wednesday night's clash with Preston.

It was QPR's third draw in as many games, but the Hoops will feel they had more than enough chances to take all three points, if not for an outstanding Asmir Begovic.

QPR now have back-to-back home games to try and claim their first win since the opening day of the season, when they dismissed a struggling Nottingham Forest side.

Warburton will look to Bright Osayi-Samuel and Macauley Bonne for inspiration after they both put in strong performances on Saturday.

The R's came out on top in the last meeting between these two sides but did suffer a hefty 4-1 defeat at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium last January which will be fresh in the fans' memories.

Preston boss Alex Neil on February 8, 2020 © Reuters

It may be a relief to Alex Neil that his Preston side are back on the road having endured woeful form at home this season, including three 1-0 defeats.

In fact, Neil's side have won just once in nine Deepdale league games stretching back to February and are without a Championship point, or a goal, at home this season.

Their away form, however, has produced all four of this season's points with a hard-fought draw away to Norwich City and then a Scott Sinclair-inspired 4-2 win away at Brentford.

In contrast to QPR, Preston now have two consecutive away games to try and muster some points and steer them away from what will naturally be a season-long dogfight at the bottom of the table.

Queens Park Rangers Championship form: WLDDD
Queens Park Rangers form (all competitions): LWLDDD

Preston North End Championship form: DLDLWL
Preston North End form (all competitions): WDLLWD

Team News

Preston North End's Tom Barkhuizen pictured in October 2019 © Reuters

Tom Barkhuizen is likely to be recalled to Preston's starting lineup after having to settle for a place on the bench last time out.

Neil may look to reshuffle his front line further with the likes of Jayden Stockley in contention having shown sparks of positivity on Sunday.

Recent signing Emil Riis Jakobsen could also be given his first away start as he looks increasingly settled in the Preston side.

QPR will likely keep to the same starting lineup that impressed at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday. Still, Lyndon Dykes could return to the side having recovered from a busy international period.

Albert Adomah looked sharp having come off the bench against Bournemouth and could also be given the nod.

Queens Park Rangers possible starting lineup:
Dieng; Kakay, Dickie, Barbet, Wallace; Amos, Cameron; Osayi-Samuel, Chair, Willock, Bonne

Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Rudd; Rafferty, Bauer, Davies, Hughes; Pearson, Ledson; Potts, Browne, Sinclair; Barkhuizen

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We say: Queens Park Rangers 2-1 Preston North End

Both teams will see this fixture as an opportunity to bag all three points and we expect it to be a closely contested matchup. Rangers' attacking options may be the deciding factor and could be too much for Preston on the night. With that in mind, we expect to see a narrow win for the home team.

Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Queens Park Rangers win with a probability of 41.49%. A win for Preston North End had a probability of 34.4% and a draw had a probability of 24.1%.

The most likely scoreline for a Queens Park Rangers win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.75%) and 2-0 (6.17%). The likeliest Preston North End win was 1-2 (7.93%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.08%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5% likelihood.