Preston North End vs Wigan Athletic preview: A Lancashire derby that promises to be an exciting affair

There will be a Lancashire derby at Deepdale on Saturday afternoon, with the away side coming off the back of a great transfer window and three points on the opening day, whilst it’s quite the opposite for Preston North End.

Wigan Athletic surprised many with a 3-2 home win last weekend against newly relegated Cardiff City, they have spent big in the summer after surviving relegation last season, with the likes of Jamal Lowe and Kieffer Moore joining the Latics.

After Alex Neil’s side lost their opening game of the season against Millwall, many thought they were going to strengthen their squad before the deadline in certain key areas.

That did not materialise though, so despite the positive signings of the likes of Patrick Bauer and Tom Bayliss, they failed to bring in a left-back, goalkeeper or an extra attacker, leaving the fans feeling dispirited heading into their first home game of the new campaign.

Team news

One positive for North End is their injury list, last season they had terrible luck with injuries and by now already had Billy Bodin out for the season. They will be thankful that they are not dealing with anything like that going into this game.

There are two players unavailable for selection for Neil but nothing serious, Ryan Ledson is serving the final game of his four-match ban which he picked up the last time these sides met, in a 2-0 Wigan win at the DW stadium.

Summer signing David Nugent will also miss out after picking up a knock in a midweek bounce game against Salford City.

New signings Andre Green and Bayliss could both make their first starts for Preston, whilst both Louis Moult and Daniel Johnson, who had interest from other clubs during the week, are still at Deepdale and available for selection.

As for the away side, Paul Cook also has two players unavailable, in the form of club captain Sam Morsy, who has a slight hamstring injury and Anthony Pilkington will also not be fit to play through injury.

There are seven new signings who have yet to make their debut’s for Wigan, a few of those could feature for the Latics on Saturday.

Whilst former Preston striker Joe Garner could face his former club, he played a big part in their most recent promotion to the Championship and is a PNE fan.

Alex Neil is looking to get points on the board after opening day defeat

Speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s clash, Neil admitted the prospect of a local derby is exciting, although it will not be easy, he said:

“Any local derby is exciting, the last time we played them at our place has good memories for us, but it is going to be a tough game.

"Wigan are a good competitive side, they have done a lot of business this window in terms of strengthening, particularly at the top end of the pitch, and it will be interesting to see if any of those players play.

“They deserved to win against Cardiff. They went a goal behind and came back from that. They have some good players, Windass was a key player for them last week, so it will be a difficult game.”

The North End boss also suggested that he is hopeful of improving his side’s home form this season.

He said: “Our home form is something we have needed to improve upon for the past couple of years; our away form has arguably been stronger than our home form.

“We are hoping to be more creative at home. We want to win most of our home games, which is crucial, and it is something we certainly need to improve this season.”

'It won’t be hard to do better than we did last year' - Paul Cook on his sides visit to Deepdale

The Wigan boss spoke to the press ahead of the game and reiterated how he hopes his side will do better than how they performed at Deepdale last year, as well as commenting on the transfer window.

He said: “We’re very pleased with what we’ve done in the window that sees us have a lot better squad depth than we had last year that’s for sure.

"We were well and truly battered and got turned over by a very strong Preston team and we’re going there tomorrow, fully aware of what went wrong last year.

"But it won’t be hard to do better than we did last year."