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Championship | Gameweek 18
Nov 20, 2021 at 3pm UK
Deepdale
Cardiff City logo

Preston
1 - 2
Cardiff

Maguire (2')
Cunningham (57'), Iversen (66')
FT(HT: 1-0)
McGuinness (51'), Collins (66')
Ng (35'), Colwill (87'), Harris (88')

The Match

Preview

Sports Mole previews Saturday's Championship clash between Preston North End and Cardiff City, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Steve Morison will take charge of his first game since being appointed as permanent Cardiff City manager when the Bluebirds travel to Preston North End on Saturday afternoon. City return from the two-week international break sitting just three points above the Championship relegation zone, while Preston are six points better off in 16th place.

Match preview

After snapping a 10-game winless run with a late 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town last time out, the Cardiff board moved to hand interim boss Morison a permanent contract. Morison, who had previously been working with City's Under-23s side, has won one, drawn one and lost one of his three games since Mick McCarthy's sacking a month ago. A return of four points from those three games is a substantial improvement on the zero points accrued across their previous eight games, failing to score in all but one of those. Cardiff appear to be on their way up, then, as they seek their first back-to-back league wins since beating Wycombe Wanderers and Birmingham City in April and May. Preston are better off than the Welsh side in the table, but their form has been rather inconsistent of late under Frankie McAvoy. The Lilywhites went seven games without a win before a run of three victories and two defeats in their most recent five matches. That includes a pretty resounding 3-0 loss at Nottingham Forest two weeks ago, leaving North End 16th in the table and now five points off the playoffs. However, Preston have won their last two matches at Deepdale and are looking for three wins in a row on home soil for the first time since December last year. Cardiff have won their last two games at Deepdale, though, which is as many as they managed in their previous 15 visits there.
Preston North End Championship form:
  • W
  • L
  • L
  • W
  • W
  • L
Cardiff City Championship form:
  • L
  • L
  • L
  • D
  • L
  • W

Team News

After making four changes to Cardiff's lineup last time out, Morison may go for a more settled XI this time around. However, that may depend on the fitness of star striker Kieffer Moore, who played a full part in Wales's draw with Belgium on Tuesday. Should Moore be fit to start for Cardiff, Morison will effectively have a full group of players available to choose from, with James Collins and Tom Sang back available. As for Preston, they will be forced into at least one change for Saturday's match as Patrick Bauer sustained an injury in the loss to Forest that will keep him out for a month. Jordan Storey was introduced in Bauer's place two weeks ago and is the most likely candidate to get the nod alongside Sepp van den Berg and Andrew Hughes in defence. North End have a number of other players absent through injury, including the likes of Connor Wickham, Isaiah Brown and Josh Murphy, who would have been ineligible anyway. Preston North End possible starting lineup: Iversen; Van den Berg, Storey, Hughes; Barkhuizen, Whiteman, Browne, McCann, Earl; Jakobsen, Maguire Cardiff City possible starting lineup: Smithies; Flint, Morrison, Nelson; Sang, Ralls, Pack, Giles; Colwill, Harris; Moore

We said: Preston North End 1-1 Cardiff City

Cardiff's results have improved of late, and they could now do with finding some consistency under new permanent boss Morison. Preston have won back-to-back games at Deepdale, but it has been almost a year since they won three on the spin there, and we can see them being held this weekend.
Read more.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Preston North End win with a probability of 35.64%. A win for Cardiff City had a probability of 35.08% and a draw had a probability of 29.3%.

The most likely scoreline for a Preston North End win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (7.36%) and 2-0 (6.78%). The likeliest Cardiff City win was 0-1 (12.25%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.43%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.3% likelihood.

Result
Preston North EndDrawCardiff City
35.64%29.29%35.08%
Both teams to score 44.06%
Goals
Over 2.5Under 2.5
37.2%62.8%
Over 3.5Under 3.5
17.68%82.32%
Preston North End Goals
Over 0.5Under 0.5
66.57%33.43%
Over 1.5Under 1.5
29.94%70.06%
Cardiff City Goals
Over 0.5Under 0.5
66.19%33.81%
Over 1.5Under 1.5
29.53%70.47%
Score Analysis
    Preston North End 35.63%
    Cardiff City 35.07%
    Draw 29.29%
Preston North EndDrawCardiff City
1-0 @ 12.38%
2-1 @ 7.36%
2-0 @ 6.78%
3-1 @ 2.69%
3-0 @ 2.48%
3-2 @ 1.46%
Other @ 2.49%
Total : 35.63%
1-1 @ 13.43%
0-0 @ 11.3%
2-2 @ 3.99%
Other @ 0.57%
Total : 29.29%
0-1 @ 12.25%
1-2 @ 7.28%
0-2 @ 6.65%
1-3 @ 2.63%
0-3 @ 2.4%
2-3 @ 1.44%
Other @ 2.41%
Total : 35.07%

How you voted: Preston vs Cardiff

Preston North End
50.0%
Draw
20.8%
Cardiff City
29.2%
24
Head to Head
Feb 20, 2021 3pm
Gameweek 31
Cardiff
4-0
Preston
Moore (2' pen.), Murphy (46'), Pack (71'), Harris (77')
Flint (65'), Bennett (90+2')
Oct 18, 2020 12pm
Gameweek 5
Preston
0-1
Cardiff

Browne (60')
Ojo (52')
Jun 27, 2020 12.30pm
Dec 21, 2019 12.30pm
Gameweek 23
Cardiff
0-0
Preston
Tomlin (45')
Gallagher (21'), Clarke (35')
Dec 29, 2017 7.45pm
Cardiff
0-1
Preston

Peltier (22'), Paterson (90')
Clarke (90')
Barkhuizen (27'), Browne (36'), Pearson (48'), Hugill (94')
rhs 2.0
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd21145230111945
2Leeds UnitedLeeds21126337152242
3Sunderland21117332171540
4Burnley2010822471738
5Blackburn RoversBlackburn2011452517837
6Middlesbrough21104735251034
7West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom2071122314932
8Watford199462725231
9Sheffield WednesdaySheff Weds218582630-429
10Swansea CitySwansea217682322127
11Bristol City216962626027
12Norwich CityNorwich206863530526
13Millwall206772018225
14Derby CountyDerby216692626024
15Coventry CityCoventry216692730-324
16Preston North EndPreston2141162127-623
17Stoke CityStoke215792328-522
18Queens Park RangersQPR2141072127-622
19Luton TownLuton2164112337-1422
20Oxford UnitedOxford Utd2046102133-1218
21Cardiff CityCardiff2046101932-1318
22Portsmouth193882134-1317
23Plymouth ArgylePlymouth2045111942-2317
24Hull City2137111930-1116


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