Preston North End's Freddie Woodman surprised to see Queens Park Rangers so low in the Championship table ahead of family affair for him

The London-born goalkeeper is eager to return to the capital, as North End face 18th in the league this weekend.

Woodman, formerly in the Crystal Palace academy, was born in Croydon and has friends who are fans of the R’s and is shocked at the league position of this weekend’s West London opponents.

He said: “I’m super surprised. I’ve actually got a friend who is a QPR fan, and I ask him quite a lot about what’s gone wrong. When you look at their squad, it’s a good squad on paper. I think they’ve got some fantastic players and some really good attacking quality.

"I think teams can have them seasons where things just don’t go quite right, but we know they’ve got a lot of quality and I always find going down to QPR a tough place to go, it’s a tight ground and I can imagine their fans will try and make it hostile for us.”

Gareth Ainsworth’s side have won just two games in their last 23 outings, both of which 1-0 wins against Watford respectively and a win against North End – in the reverse fixture at Deepdale. They have also conceded the second most goals in the league.

PNE’s no.1, however, has done well to keep the ball from finding the back of his net, keeping 16 clean sheets so far this season and would be joint-top of the Championship rankings if it wasn’t for a late Jerry Yates tap-in at the weekend. With another struggling side in Reading following Rangers up quickly on Easter Monday, Woodman believes that his side are capable of picking up six points from the long weekend.

“There’s two games we have to play, there’s six points up for grabs and the table will look very different come Tuesday,” said the shot-stopper.

“They are two very important games, they’re two games we believe we can get results in, so hopefully we can do that and come Tuesday hopefully we will be looking at the table in a different manor. I love easter weekend as a footballer, you get to play two games, at three o’clock as well, it’s different, it’s class to be involved in.”

With Queens Park Rangers being so close to home for the 26-year-old, Woodman is excited for family and friends to come to the game, despite stiff competition from his dad, Andy Woodman – who is the current Bromley manager.

It makes a change for Woodman, who was snubbed for PNE’s last trip to the capital to play Watford – on what was his birthday too – as family instead went to watch the Ravens

"Yeah they did! And it was my birthday, it was even worse! I'm going to remind them about that. No one wants to go to Barnet away, it's a bit of a stinker.”

“I’ve asked for a lot of tickets to be fair,” he said.

“I was out with my family the other day and we were all talking about my game and how many tickets I need to get, and my dad was sat at the end of the table, like we’ve got Barnet away if anyone wants to come?”

“No one is going to his game; everyone is coming to QPR. It’s nice, when we get to play in the capital, lots of friends and family get to go to the game, which is cool.”