Preston North End square off against non-league local rivals Bamber Bridge in a friendly at the SFC Stadium on Wednesday evening.
While this fixture represents the third of pre-season for the Lilywhites, The Brig are gearing up for their fourth friendly match.
Match preview
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Preston are still searching for their first pre-season victory this summer having suffered back-to-back defeats against League One side Lincoln City and non-league outfit Southport, losing 1-0 to the former and 2-1 to the latter.
It took just two minutes for the Lilywhites' defence to be breached against Lincoln last Friday when Jovon Makama fired the only goal of the closely-fought contest into the far corner.
Four days later, Mads Frokjaer got his name on the scoresheet for Preston in Tuesday's trip to Southport, netting just after the half-hour mark to cancel out Marcus Carver's 19th-minute opener. However, the National League North side prevailed courtesy of a second-half winner from a trialist.
Manager Ryan Lowe was keen to point out that his side's intense pre-season training regime led to a lot of "tired bodies" in the loss to Lincoln, before stating that he saw positive results of "new principles" given to the team against Southport.
Lowe will nevertheless want to see his side find their groove sooner rather than later and put aside their disappointing end to the 2023-24 season. The Lilywhites lost each of their last five matches in the Championship, slipping out of playoff contention and down to 10th place, finishing 10 points behind the top six.
Preston will look to turn their fortunes around when they face Bamber Bridge, and three more friendly fixtures against Fiorentina, Salford City and Everton will then follow before their opening league match of the 2024-25 season at home to Sheffield United on August 10.
While Preston are preparing for their 10th consecutive campaign in the Championship, Bamber Bridge are gearing up for a seventh straight season in the Northern Premier League after finishing 16th in the 21-team table in 2023-24.
Despite a miserable run of eight defeats in their final 10 league games, The Brig were never in danger of the drop and eventually finished 17 points clear of the bottom three.
Jamie Milligan's side began their pre-season programme with a 2-0 defeat to EFL side Fleetwood Town, but they followed that up with an emphatic 7-0 drubbing of Longridge Town before beating Charnock Richard 4-1 last Saturday.
Bamber Bridge will be seeking revenge against local rivals Preston on Wednesday after they suffered a heavy 7-0 friendly loss the last time that they faced the Lilywhites this time last year.
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Team News
It remains to be seen which Preston players that took part in the defeat to Southport on Tuesday will feature in Wednesday's clash with Bamber Bridge.
New signings Stefan Teitur Thordarson and Sam Greenwood made their non-competitive Preston debuts against Lincoln before playing again against Southport, and they could feature in some capacity on Wednesday, as could the likes of Freddie Woodman, Liam Lindsay, Duane Holmes and Emil Riis.
As for Bamber Bridge, Max Cane and Billy Bould were both on the scoresheet in the victory over Charnock Richard last time out and they are set to feature in some capacity on Wednesday.
Alex-Ray Harvey, Bailey Thompson, Lewis Hey, Nathan Caine, Ben Rydel and Finlay Wallbank have all joined The Brig this summer and could be involved against Preston.
We say: Preston North End 3-0 Bamber Bridge
Bamber Bridge have scored goals for fun in their last two friendly matches, but they face a much sterner test against Preston on Wednesday. Although the Lilywhites have made a slow start to pre-season, we feel that they should have few problems securing a comfortable victory this time around.
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Oliver Thomas
