Former Preston scholar Tyrhys Dolan will be back at Deepdale with Blackburn Rovers

Former Preston North End scholar Tyrhys Dolan will be in the Blackburn Rovers squad which travels to Deepdale on Tuesday night.
Tyrhys Dolan (right) in Blackburn's Carabao Cup game at NewcastleTyrhys Dolan (right) in Blackburn's Carabao Cup game at Newcastle
Tyrhys Dolan (right) in Blackburn's Carabao Cup game at Newcastle

Dolan, who skippered the youth team, was released by PNE in the summer at the end of his apprenticeship and was snapped-up by Rovers for their Under-23s.

When he got a chance to train with their first-team squad during pre-season, he grabbed it with both hands.

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The 18-year-old now has 10 Championship games under his belt – five starts and five from the bench – and has scored twice.

North End manager Alex Neil says midfielder Dolan was a player ideally he would have wished to have kept in the longer term. But circumstances dictated otherwise.

Neil said: “When Tyrhys went there, they had a few injuries and at that time they hadn't re-signed Stewart Downing and hadn't brought in Harvey Elliott

"Tyrhys played some games for them and did well

“I’ve been to a couple of Blackburn games and he’s featured in those.

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"I think the difficulty we have got at the moment with young players is that we don't have an Under-23s for lads to play regular football.

“Before he went to Blackburn, Tyhrys would have been a player in the longer term who I would like to have kept. But the pandemic was a factor in that and even more so was that we can’t get regular game time for the young boys.

“To be fair, Tyrhys wasn’t the only one, there were one or two others who had shown up well.

"In a different set of circumstances we would probably have kept them on."

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Rovers come to Preston unbeaten in three, a win over Queens Park Rangers sandwiched between draws with Middlesbrough and Luton.

Saturday's 1-1 draw at Luton saw Sam Gallagher on target.

Their outstanding performer this season has been Adam Armstrong who has netted 11 league goals - six of those in the last four matches.

North End go into the derby two places and a point ahead of Rovers, with Neil impressed with what he's seen from the Ewood Park outfit.

Neil said: "I've been impressed with them. Their patterns are good, they are comfortable on the ball, they have made some good signings.

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"They have some size of squad when you look at the amount of players who are not available to them at the moment,

"Blackburn have added quite a few players such as Daniel Ayala, Barry Douglas, Tom Trybull, lads like that.

"They are a good side. There is no question they have improved their squad at this level year on year. They have spent some big money on players."

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