North End owner Trevor Hemmings has decided against taking up an option to buy Cork City.

At the end of October, Hemmings was given the exclusive option to buy the League of Ireland club through one of his companies Grovemoor Ltd.

Members of the fans-owned club voted to give him that option after PNE bought out the sell-on clauses for Alan Browne and Sean Maguire earlier in the year, while Hemmings also helped them meet a tax bill.

Hemmings, through North End advisor Peter Ridsdale, had been attempting to negotiate a longer lease on City’s Turner’s Cross ground with Munster FA, who are the landlords.

Read the full article here. 

PNE haven’t lost any of their last 14 league meetings with Bristol City, though the sides have been closer of late with three draws in the last three meetings.

To add to their torrid record in general against PNE, the Robins have won just once in their last 13 visits to PR1.

They did it in style though, a 4-1 win in 2011. 

PNE Starting XI: Rudd, Fisher, Huntington, Davies, Earl, Browne, Gallagher, Barkhuizen, Johnson, Sinclair, Maguire. 

PNE Subs: Ripley, Storey, Rafferty, O'Reilly, Bayliss, Harrop, Holland-Wilkinson, Riis, Stockley.

Andrew Hughes misses out tonight due to injury so it’s back to it for Paul Huntington, Emil Riis also drops out for Scott Sinclair - meaning Sean Maguire is likeliest to lead the line. 

After poor performances of alte there has been plenty of talk of PNE stepping things up.

They will certainly need to play better than they have in their last two but as much as anything they need to show they’re up to putting things right.

Both sides come onto the rainy Deepdale pitch.