Preston North End confirm pre-season friendlies with Accrington Stanley and Bamber Bridge

The Lilywhites will kick-off their warm-up programme on Saturday, July 2, with the traditional visit to Bamber Bridge (3pm).

For the second pre-season running they will travel to the Crown Ground to take on Accrington Stanley on Saturday, July 16, that game also having a 3pm kick-off.

More friendly matches will be announced in due course as the scheduled is finalised.

Last year’s clash with Bamber Bridge was washed out when heavy rain flooded the pitch at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium.

The game was played instead behind closed doors at PNE’s Euxton training ground.

That was a big blow to Brig, with the Preston friendly being a big revenue earner.

North End drew 1-1 at Accrington last year, Jamie Thomas scoring in a game in which he played as a trialist.

The visit to Brig will come at the end of the first week of pre-season training for Ryan Lowe’s men. They are scheduled to report back after the summer break on Monday, June 27.

At least one friendly is planned for Deepdale during the summer, with Paul Huntington scheduled to have a testimonial game to mark his 10 years service.

The EFL season kicks-off a week earlier than normal this year on the weekend of July 30/31, the early start due to the campaign having to pause for four weeks in November and December due to the World Cup being played in Qatar.

The fixture list will be released at 9am on Thursday, June 23.

A ‘best of’ XI who faced PNE last season