After a long 46-game season, focus in League One turns to the playoffs and both first legs of the semi-finals take place on Thursday night.

At the Proact Stadium, Preston North End will hope to overcome their disappointment on missing automatic promotion by claiming a positive result in the first leg against Chesterfield.

Chesterfield

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The Spireites had no problem in adjusting to life in League One after winning League Two last term as they finished sixth in their first season back in the third tier.

Paul Cook's side might have not won any of their last three games, but a run of eight wins in 11 games before that meant that their place in the top six was fairly safe entering the final few weeks.

Goals have been hard to come by of late, though, with just one scored in their last three outings - hardly the ideal way to finish the season and enter the playoffs.

That goal came on the final day as they drew 1-1 with Sheffield United in a game that decided who would finish fifth and sixth.

Chesterfield fans must wish that Eoin Doyle was still a Spireite. He scored 21 goals in 26 league games before being signed by Cardiff City in January and still finished joint-third in League One's scoring charts despite playing just over half a season.

Recent form: WDWDLD

Preston

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Simon Grayson's Lilywhites went into a final-day match at relegation-threatened Colchester United a point clear of MK Dons and without a league defeat in 18 games.

They were favourites to join Bristol City in being automatically promoted, but it all went horribly wrong as the U's scored an 82nd-minute winner to secure their safety and condemn Preston to the playoffs, with the Dons seeing off bottom club Yeovil Town 5-1.

The mood in the Preston camp is pretty bleak, with Grayson and his players admitting after Sunday's game that it was crushing not to go up automatically.

It was the first time since early December that they had failed to score in the league, a run of 29 games, and the likes of Joe Garner and Jermaine Beckford will hope to have their shooting boots back on Thursday.

Garner, the League One Player of the Year, finished the season as the division's top scorer with 25 goals in 37 appearances, and interest in him will no doubt be high whether Preston come through the playoffs or not.

Recent form: DDDWWL

Team News

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Neither manager has any fresh injury concerns, so similar lineups to the ones that started in the final-day matches could be on show at the Proact Stadium.

Cook made only two Chesterfield substitutions in the game against Sheffield United and both Gregory Ariyibi and Armand Gnanduillet will hope that they did enough to earn starts.

Grayson, meanwhile, named an unchanged XI against Colchester and could again refrain from tinkering to his side, despite the poor display in Essex.

Callum Robinson might be chosen to start, but strikers Kevin Davies and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake are likely to stay on the bench behind first-choice forward duo Garner and Beckford.

Chesterfield possible starting lineup:
Lee; Darikwa, Evatt, Hird, Jones; Ryan, Morsy; O'Shea, Roberts, Gardner; Clucas

Preston possible starting lineup:
Johnstone; Clarke, Huntingdon, Wright, Laird; Humphrey, Johnson, Welsh, Gallagher; Beckford, Garner

Head To Head

The home side have only been victorious in one of the last nine meetings between these two teams in all competitions.

This season, six goals were shared in their first match at Deepdale in September, with Doyle scoring a hat-trick, including an injury-time equaliser, as Chesterfield fought back from conceding three times in the opening half-hour.

The most recent meeting went Preston's way, with Garner bagging a brace in mid-February.

We say: Chesterfield 1-3 Preston

After failing to score against Colchester, Preston's menacing strikeforce could run riot against a Chesterfield defence that they have already scored five against this season. Chesterfield must be respected after a stellar first campaign back in the third tier, but Preston's quality should shine through in a high-pressure match.

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