Preston North End will face a Stoke City side struggling for consistency

One of the early pacesetters, the Potters were tipped ot be in the top six before the season started and looked every bit the part in the early exchanges of the campaign.

When they played PNE back in September, then head coach Frankie McAvoy praised them as the best side he had faced.

Of late, Stoke have not been picking up points with the regularity that they did earlier this season, in part down to the disruption caused by injuries.

Harry Souttar is out for the season, a key man in the heart of their three-man defence and one of the star performers in the reverse fixture.

Stoke boss Michael O’Neill has still got a few out with injury, though his ranks have been bolstered, but then you can throw Covid into the mix.

The Potters had 10 Covid cases and their games against Coventry City and Barnsley were both called off.

After a 19-day wait, they did get back into action.

They played Derby County on December 30, losing 2-1 to Wayne Rooney’s men in the final five minutes.

It sums up the second half of Stoke’s season so far – having lost two of their opening 14 in all competitions the Potters have since lost seven of their last 13, winning only four.

That form has seen them drop out of the play-off places. They are currently four points off the pace, although they do have two games in hand.

On how his side played in their last game, O’Neill said: “We could not get any consistency in our play throughout the game.

“Our attitude to the game was good, but we lacked quality in our play. We pressed hard, but when we won the ball we turned it over again.

“There were too many stray passes and unforced errors.

“We were poor in possession and that was the biggest factor. We didn’t get any rhythm which gives the opposition hope and confidence.

“We forced the game more in the second half and got the equaliser.

“You feel then you are capable of going on to win the game.

“But we gave away a bad goal again, losing the ball in a bad area and how we defended after that was also poor.

“And that was the deciding factor in the game.”

The Potters are a bit of a mixed threat when it comes to goals, they do not have one out-and-out goalscorer.

Their top scorers at the moment are Nick Powell and Jacob Brown, who both have five goals. PNE’s Emil Riis has racked up eight thus far in the Championship.

Brown also has four assists but their chief creative threat is Mario Vrancic, on loan from Norwich City.

He was the troublemaker in the reverse fixture too, dropping in between the defence and the midfield to find space–- although things could be different this time around with a slight change to the system.

PNE struggled to cope with Stoke dropping between the lines but now with a deeper midfielder to marshall that area, they may be able to stem the flow.

The biggest talking point of this game will be the return to action of the Lilywhites, having had all of Christmas without a game due to Covid.

New boss Ryan Lowe will finally get a chance to follow up the win over Barnsley 23 days prior.