Preston North End will turn up the volume for derby collision with Blackburn Rovers

The last two Deepdale meetings between the sides were watched by crowds of more than 19,000 but it will be an eerie backdrop for this evening’s game.

PNE piped in crowd noise for Saturday’s victory over Sheffield Wednesday and will do so again for Rovers’ visit.

That noise was seen as being beneficial by the players and North End hope it can pay similar dividends.

Lilywhites manager Neil said: “We had discussions about how we could try and improve things.

“We’ve experienced crowd noise at other grounds and we had spoken about the eerie nature of Deepdale.

“Because it is enclosed, the place echoes often and we felt that crowd noise could distract the players from that.

“We know that we cannot replicate the atmosphere of a local derby, that would be impossible.

“You’ve got the noise of the crowd, you can smell the tension in a derby, you can cut the atmosphere with a knife.

“There have been derbies in the past when we’ve been behind and the fans have helped us through, or we’ve had to chase the game.”

Neil’s selection will be an interesting one tonight, on the back of their first league win at home since July.

Darnell Fisher was hit by an FA charge last night over the incident when he made a grab at the genitals of Wednesday’s Callum Paterson.

PNE have until 6pm tonight to respond and if he accepts the charge is believed to be facing a three-game ban.

There could be a start for Jayden Stockley after he came on at half-time on Saturday.

Neil has revealed that the plan was to start the big striker on Saturday.

However, Stockley was ill on Friday and only deemed fit enough for the bench.

In fact, Neil had youngster Jacob Holland-Wilkinson on standby for a substitute’s role if Stockley did not make it.

Neil said: “Jayden was scheduled to start but he came down with sickness and diarrhoea on Friday.

“I had to put him on the bench thinking we might get half an hour max out of him.

“We brought Jayden on at half-time so 45 minutes was really pushing it.”

Neil will be mindful that Stockley helped change the course of the game when PNE came from 2-0 down to beat Rovers 3-2 last season.

Ben Pearson also comes into the starting equation after playing the last 20 minutes as a substitute against Wednesday.

The midfielder got back from a groin injury ahead of schedule, his return a big boost ahead of a busy spell.

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