Liam Lindsay looking forward to facing his former club with Preston North End

Preston North End defender Liam Lindsay will this weekend be pitched against the side who gave him his pathway into English football.
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Barnsley come to Deepdale on Saturday (3pm) assured of a top-six place and jockeying for position in the play-offs.

They have won 13 of their last 17 games, with manager Valerien Ismael having done a remarkable job since taking over at the end of October.

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Lindsay spent two seasons with the Tykes, moving to South Yorkshire from Partick Thistle in June 20.

Liam Lindsay is on loan at Preston North End from StokeLiam Lindsay is on loan at Preston North End from Stoke
Liam Lindsay is on loan at Preston North End from Stoke

The defender had a season in the Championship before Barnsley were relegated.

He helped them gain promotion at the first attempt before moving on to Stoke in a £2m deal.

It is the Potters who loaned the 25-year-old to PNE in the winter transfer window. “They are going great guns aren’t they,” said Lindsay as he turned his thoughts to the Lancashire-v-Yorkshire clash.

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“I’ve not played against them since I left so it’s going to be an important one for me.

“It’s mainly a pretty new squad but a couple of lads are still there from when I played for them.

“Every credit to Barnsley, they’ve had a superb season and anything could happen in the play-offs.”

Lindsay has two more games of his loan spell remaining before heading back to the Potteries.

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With 11 matches under his belt and a goal in the derby win at Blackburn, the loan has been something of a kick-start for him.

The Glaswegian had not played first-team football for 12 months prior to moving to North End, having been frozen out of Stoke’s plans.

Since Frankie McAvoy was given the interim head coach role, Lindsay has played in the middle of a back three. It was a new role for him but one he has found to his liking.

Said Lindsay said: “I came here to play football, from a selfish standpoint I needed games. But what was important was to help Preston win games.

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“Recently we’ve done well in a back three, it’s the first time I’ve played in the middle of a three in my career.

“I feel it suits my game, with Jordan Storey and Andrew Hughes complementing each other well.

“Over the last few weeks we have come together as a squad, we realised we were in a bit of trouble.

“We got safe with two games to go and now we will try and win the last two.”

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Lindsay, who has 12 months to run on his Stoke contract, would like to come back to PNE after the summer.

He said: “I don’t know what is going to happen but as soon as I stepped in the building here everyone was brilliant to me. I’d call it a successful loan but it is not done yet.”

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