Back from an unsuccessful sojourn to Spain, Preston North End play their second pre-season friendly on Tuesday evening, travelling to Haig Avenue to meet National League North outfit Southport.
Ryan Lowe's men were condemned to a 1-0 loss to Lincoln City in their opening exhibition contest in San Pedro del Pinatar, while Southport begin their 2024-25 preparations in midweek.
Match preview
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It took just two minutes of pre-season for Preston's defence to be breached for the first time, as Lincoln's Jovon Makama picked out the far corner in their Pinatar Arena affair on Friday, which proved to be the decisive moment in a low-scoring contest.
Nevertheless, Lowe was keen to focus on the positives from Preston's one-goal loss, admitting that a brutal pre-season training regime led to a lot of "tired bodies" on the Pinatar pitch but also hailing his players for their "different class" work during their training camp.
Now back on familiar soil, Preston are gearing up for their second of six pre-season friendlies before the new Championship campaign commences; they will also cross paths with Bamber Bridge, Everton, Fiorentina and Salford City in the coming weeks.
All of those exhibition contests precede a Championship opener with recently-relegated Sheffield United on August 9, as the Deepdale outfit endeavour to right several wrongs from a horrendous end to the 2023-24 campaign, where they wound up in 10th place.
Each of Preston's last five games in the 2023-24 Championship season saw Lowe's men suffer defeat while failing to make the net bulge in the process, meaning that in competitive and non-competitive matches combined, they have lost their last six without scoring a single goal.
However, upcoming foes Southport did not fare all that much better on the offensive front in the closing stages of their National League North campaign, where only one of their final five matches saw the Sandgrounders breach the opposition backline.
Tuesday's hosts put three unanswered goals past Rushall Olympic to sign off on a high note at home, but their endeavours were fruitless against South Shields, Darlington, Scunthorpe United and Farsley Celtic, failing to bag a goal against any of them and taking just one point from a possible 12.
That underwhelming sequence of results contributed to Southport's 17th-placed finish in the National League North campaign, but the work of manager Jim Bentley was nevertheless lauded; he took over in August 2023 with the Sandgrounders bottom of the league and boasting just one point from their opening six games.
Survival was therefore always going to be the paramount aim for Bentley and co, whose team also have friendly battles against Oldham Athletic, Cliftonville and Morecambe pencilled into the diary before restarting National League duties against Alfreton Town on August 10.
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Team News
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Despite admitting that many of his players were feeling the effects of a gruelling week after their loss to Lincoln, Lowe also confirmed that no-one picked up any injuries in Spain, where new signings Stefan Teitur Thordarson and Sam Greenwood made their non-competitive Preston debuts.
Greenwood completed the first 45 minutes of the encounter before making way for Thordason for the second half, while 19-year-old right-back Josh Seary is seemingly OK despite only lasting 25 minutes against Lincoln.
Goalkeeper Freddie Woodman was the only man to complete over 45 minutes in Preston's first friendly of the summer, playing for just over an hour before 19-year-old James Pradic took his place in between the posts.
Meanwhile, Southport have already been extremely active on the transfer front in terms of both incomings and outgoings, bringing no fewer than nine new faces to the club and seeing seven head for the exit door.
Among the hosts' new arrivals is 37-year-old centre-back Nathaniel Knight-Percival, formerly of Wrexham, Peterborough United and Carlisle United, while winger Tyler Walton has earned a move to the EFL with League Two outfit Accrington Stanley.
Southport possible starting lineup:
Renshaw; Knight-Percival, Moore, Flowers; Thomson, Morgan, Burgess, Hilton, Doyle; Owolabi, Lloyd
Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Pradic; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Seary, Ledson, Whiteman, Greenwood, Brady; Riis, Keane
We say: Southport 0-3 Preston North End
Even with jellied legs from an unforgiving training camp in Spain, a full-strength Preston side should run into few obstacles en route to a straightforward victory at Haig Avenue.
Lowe can be expected to field completely different XIs in each half, which may disrupt the momentum somewhat, but the visitors should be backed to right their Lincoln wrongs.
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Ben Knapton
