Cup tie will be a case of ‘back to the future’ for Preston North End boss Alex Neil

North End were paired with the Stags at home during yesterday morning’s draw – the tie scheduled to go ahead at Deepdale on the weekend of August 29/30.

It is not the first time the two clubs have met in the competition at the first-round stage.

Back in 2004, PNE were drawn away to Mansfield in the Carling Cup, as it was known back then.

And in the home team’s midfield all those years ago was a certain player by the name of Alex Neil, who was wearing the No.7 jersey.

The Lilywhites manager spent a season at Field Mill after leaving Bansley in the summer of 2004 before returning to Scotland with Hamilton Academical, spending the next 10 years at New Douglas Park.

It proved to be an evening to forget for Neil and his team-mates as they were well beaten 4-0 by a North End team containing players such as Callum Davidson, Dickson Etuhu and Youl Mawene.

Richard Cresswell and Graham Alexander put the visitors 2-0 ahead in the opening 10 minutes, and the goalscoring was completed by Omar Daley and Simon Lynch.

The current North End squad will be hoping for a similar scoreline in less than two weeks’ time when the two clubs meet again.

They will start the match as the firm favourites against the Stags, who finished in 21st spot in League Two last season, winning 38 points from 37 fixtures before their season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, North End look set to begin their preparations for that first competitive game against Mansfield by hopefully taking part in their first 
pre-season fixture this weekend.

The club have lined up a number of friendly games which will allow them the best possible chance to be in peak condition for the opening Championship league game on September 12.

As yet, the club are unable to announce who they will face in pre-season as the finer details have still to be ironed out.

Boss Neil told PNEFC.net: “Our schedule in terms of fixtures is looking good. It’ll give us different challenges and obviously we’ve got the first round of the Carabao Cup coming.

“Everything is in place for us to try and hit the ground running when the season starts.”

North End will find out the identity of their league opponents on the opening day of the season on Friday morning when the 2020/21 Championship fixture list will be released.