Ryan Lowe will take charge of his first game as Preston North End manager against Barnsley at Deepdale on Saturday.
The 43-year-old has moved to Lancashire with the club 18th in the Championship table, while the Tykes are 23rd.
Match preview
© Reuters
A 1-0 defeat against local rivals Blackburn Rovers last weekend signalled the end of Frankie McAvoy's tenure as Preston boss.
The Lilywhites are nine points clear of relegation danger, but have won just one of their last five matches and have only kept one clean sheet in their last nine.
The club's second managerial search in nine months was concluded quickly with the appointment of Lowe, who was in charge of Plymouth Argyle for two-and-a-half years; the Pilgrims were fourth in League One at the time of his departure.
A home game against one of the Championship's struggling teams presents him with a good opportunity to get off to a strong start, with Preston having been beaten only twice in 10 league games at Deepdale this season.
The Lancashire outfit have lost just one of their last seven matches against Barnsley and won 2-0 against the Tykes in their most recent meeting in May.
© Reuters
Of course, Barnsley themselves have changed manager recently too, with Poya Asbaghi replacing Markus Schopp in mid-November.
The Iranian-born coach is still looking for his first win in charge, after losing against Swansea City and then drawing against Peterborough United and Huddersfield Town.
The Tykes have only won two games all season and only one of their last 19 matches, leaving them eight points adrift of safety in the relegation zone.
Barnsley are the only side in the Championship yet to win an away game this season, while they are also the division's lowest scorers with just 14 goals to their name.
With the team's following three fixtures all against sides currently in the top six, Asbaghi will be desperate to get a victory under his belt on Saturday afternoon.
- W
- L
- L
- W
- D
- L
- W
- L
- L
- L
- D
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Lowe used a similar 3-5-2 system at Plymouth to the one that Preston have deployed this season, so there is unlikely to be any drastic tactical switch under the new manager.
Andrew Hughes and Sepp van den Berg both missed the game against Blackburn through injury and will be assessed ahead of Saturday, as will Ched Evans, who Lowe has admitted is "struggling".
Matthew Olosunde made his long-awaited Lilywhites debut last weekend but was forced off late on so is a doubt, while Tom Barkhuizen and Josh Murphy are sidelined.
Carlton Morris scored the first goal of the Poya Asbaghi era at Barnsley last week and it was also the striker's first of the campaign.
Asbaghi is unlikely to make too many changes to his team, but Devante Cole and Josh Benson are among those pushing for a recall.
The Tykes hope to have Aapo Halme back in training soon following the defender's injury.
Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Storey, Bauer, Lindsay; van den Berg, McCann, Whiteman, Earl; Browne; Maguire, Jakobsen
Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Collins; Helik, Andersen, Kitching; Brittain, Palmer, Gomes, Styles; Iseka, Woodrow, Morris
We say: Preston North End 1-0 Barnsley
Barnsley are very gradually improving under Asbaghi, but we think that they will come away empty handed against a Preston side likely to benefit from a new manager bounce. The Lilywhites players will be keen to impress Lowe, who is an exciting appointment at Deepdale, and should claim victory.
Top tip
Olly Allen
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 44.99%. A draw had a probability of 28.3% and a win for Barnsley had a probability of 26.69%.
The most likely scoreline for a Preston North End win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.02%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.08%) and 2-1 (8.43%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (13.01%), while for a Barnsley win it was 0-1 (10.04%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with an 8.4% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Preston North End would win this match.
