Preston North End secure Watford transfer swoop on deadline day as injury blow confirmed

Preston North End have completed a transfer deadline day swoop for Watford defender Ryan Porteous.

The 25-year-old has made the loan move to Deepdale on the final day of the mid-season window. He becomes the Lilywhites’ third addition of the window after the arrivals of Lewis Gibson and Jayden Meghoma.

Porteous, a Scotland international, has made 25 appearances in all competitions for Watford this season - taking his total tally at Vicarage Road to 82. The centre-back played under PNE boss Paul Heckingbottom at Hibernian.

North End were not in the market for another defender this window but injury to first team regular Jordan Storey, in last Friday’s derby clash with Blackburn Rovers, changed that. Porteous was swiftly targeted and he is looking forward to pulling on a Preston shirt.

He told the PNE club website: “I’m delighted. It’s all come about quite fast. When the manager spoke to me, having worked with him before at Hibs, I was pretty sure that I was going to come here.

“I'm looking forward to it. I think at the age I am now, I need a consistent run of games and a healthy environment. I feel that Preston can provide that right now.”

PNE injury blow confirmed

Heckingbottom added: “I’m really pleased we’ve managed to bring Ryan in. He’s a player I know well from my time at Hibernian and I’m looking forward to working with him again.

“We’re unfortunately going to be missing Jordan Storey for a while through injury, so it’s a position which we wanted to cover and we’ve managed to do that by adding quality with Ryan.

“He’s an international defender with experience of playing regularly in the Championship, so he’ll be a good addition for us between now and the end of the season.”