Preston North End defender Ben Davies is keeping it clean in the Lilywhites' cause

Statistics show that Davies has generally kept it clean this season, making only nine fouls in his 30 league games.

That is the second lowest for a defender in the Championship, only Blackburn’s Tosin Adarabioyo has made fewer with eight.

Davies has been booked only once this season, that against QPR at Deepdale on March 7 – the last game North End played before the season was halted.

Last season, his 41 games resulted in eight yellow cards while in 2017/18 he got five cautions in 35 appearances.

So Davies’ disciplinary record is good for a defender and ties in with the statistic of few fouls.

The fouls number crunching was done by Playmaker Stats.

They used data only from defenders who had played 25 Championship games or more this season.

Rovers’ Adarabioyo, on loan from Manchester City, has given away eight fouls in 27 league games and has not been booked so far this season.

Behind Davies in the list is Fulham’s Alfie Mawson who has made 12 fouls.

Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock and Middlesbrough’s Dael Fry have both made 13 fouls.

Derby centre-half Matt Clarke and Joe Worrall at Nottingham Forest fouled 14 times each.

Davies not having to resort to many fouls underlines just what a good defender he has developed into and the quality of his positioning.

Without doubt he has the potential to play in the Premier League, with many PNE fans and his team-mates tipping him to do that.

One coach at another club who I spoke to recently, did wonder whether Davies would have to add a touch more aggression to his game to play in the top flight.

That would just be another stage of his development, a continuation of the progress Davies has steadily made over the years.

That development has accelerated since Alex Neil took the PNE job and turned Davies into a regular pick.

Before Neil’s arrival, Davies had a succession of loans to get first-team experience.

He made his PNE debut in 2013 under Graham Westley and had a short spell in the first team early in the 2014/15 season – the campaign North End got promoted in under Simon Grayson.