Stoke City v Preston North End likely line-ups, key men, the referee, odds and all you need to know ahead of Championship clash

From the likely line-ups to key men and the referee, all you need to know can be found below.

Likely line-ups

Stoke: Butland, Bauer, Shawcross, Williams, Pieters, Etebo, Adam, Clucas, Allen, Afobe, Campbell

PNE: Rudd, Fisher, Storey, Davies, Hughes, Pearson, Gallagher, Potts, Browne, Maguire, Stockley

Key men

Charlie Adam: Having been frozen out by previous manager Gary Rowett, the experienced midfielder has a new lease of life under Nathan Jones, starting the last two games in league and cup and arguably being Stoke’s man of the match.

Ben Pearson: The midfielder was back to his very best in the win at QPR as PNE arguably put in their best performance of the season. It was his football, and not his disciplinary record, that did the talking and that needs to be a sign of things to come.

In the home dugout

Nathan Jones: This will be the 45-year-old’s fourth game in charge of Stoke, having landed the job on January 9. He succeeded Gary Rowett who lasted less than seven months in the Potters’ manager’s office. Stoke moved for Jones after being impressed with the job he had done at Luton. He guided the Hatters to promotion from League Two last season and left them in the League One automatic promotion frame. Before going to Luton, Jones was on Brighton’s staff and had a brief spell as caretaker manager.

The referee

Oliver Langford: The West Midlands official is in charge of Preston North End’s visit to Stoke City on Saturday. Earlier in the campaign, Mr Langford was in the middle for PNE’s clash with Middlesbrough in the League Cup – a game when he didn’t have to show a card. The last time he refereed a Preston league game was the 3-0 victory over Cardiff in September 2017. This will be his 24th game of the season, the last being Reading’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Odds

Stoke 10/11

PNE 10/3

Draw 5/2

This week in PNE history

32 years ago: Preston beat Lincoln City 3-0 at Deepdale on January 24, 1987. On target were Nigel Jemson, Gary Swann and Gary Brazil.

26 years ago: On January 29, 1993, North End won 4-2 against Chester City at the Deva Stadium. Tony Ellis, Mick Norbury, Mike Flynn and David Flitcroft found the net.

22 years ago: Two goals from Lee Ashcroft gave Preston a 2-1 victory against Burnley at Turf Moor on January 25, 1997.

20 years ago: Preston beat Chesterfield 1-0 at Saltergate thanks to a goal from Ryan Kidd.

14 years ago: Goals from Chris Sedgwick and Patrick Agyemang gave North End a 2-0 win over Plymouth Argyle at Home Park on January 22, 2005.