It has been almost seven months since Norwich City last played a home match in front of their supporters, but a small number of fans will return this Saturday when Preston North End visit Norfolk.

The EFL have selected eight games from across their three leagues to use as crowd pilots this weekend, including the upcoming Championship clash at Carrow Road. A maximum of 1,000 Norwich season ticket holders will be allowed through the turnstiles.

Daniel Farke’s side will welcome the news having been defeated in every home match they played behind closed doors during Project Restart at the end of last term. They will hope that the return of their supporters will help them to build some momentum at the start of this new campaign, following on from their opening day victory away at Huddersfield Town.

If the Canaries are to make it two league wins from two, they will have to overcome a handy Preston side who missed out on the play-offs by just four points last season. The Lilywhites have had a very quiet summer so far with no incomings and no major outgoings, but they will still be hoping to improve on last term’s ninth-place finish. North End lost their league opener to Swansea City last Saturday before beating Derby County 2-1 in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

This match will carry extra significance for Preston boss Alex Neil, who managed Norwich between 2015 and 2017. The Scot managed to lead the Canaries back to the Premier League within his first four months at the club, and that was undoubtedly the high point during his tenure, as relegation followed one year later.

Team news

Argentinian playmaker Emi Buendia looks set to return to Norwich’s 18-man matchday squad after serving a three-game suspension following his sending-off against Burnley at the tail end of last season. Josh Martin is also available to be selected after recovering from a calf injury.

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Attacking midfielder Marco Stiepermann will miss out due to problems with his back, while defenders Grant Hanley and Sam Byram are both still not fit enough to play, but the former did re-join group training this week.

Meanwhile, Preston have a near fully-fit squad available ahead of their trip to East Anglia. Their only two certain absentees will be Josh Earl, who is still out with a glute injury, and Louis Moult, who has been unavailable for over a year with a knee problem.

Former Norwich goalkeeper Declan Rudd missed the majority of pre-season and the first league match with a quad injury. However, the 29-year-old played 90 minutes against Derby on Tuesday, so he is in contention to start against his old club.

Predicted lineups

Norwich: Krul; Aarons, Zimmermann, Godfrey, Quintilla; Skipp, McLean; Dowell, Cantwell, Hernandez; Pukki.

Preston: Rudd; Fisher, Storey, Davies, Hughes; Pearson, Browne; Barkhuizen, Potts, Sinclair; Maguire.

Previous meetings

These two teams last met in January this year in the third round of the FA Cup. Irish striker Adam Idah made just his second senior start for Norwich in that cup tie and made a great impression as he netted a hat-trick. Onel Hernandez also scored at Deepdale for the Canaries, who won the match 4-2.

Norwich lost just six league matches as they won the Championship title in 2018/19, with one of those defeats coming against Preston. The Lilywhites earned a 3-1 home victory in February 2019 thanks to goals from Ben Davies, Paul Gallagher and Sean Maguire; three players who are all still at the club.

It is worth noting that North End’s recent record at Carrow Road is not particularly good. They have taken maximum points back to Lancashire after just one of their last seven visits.

Ones to watch

Jordan Hugill

Norwich’s new striker Jordan Hugill is a player who Preston supporters know very well, as it was at North End where he first made his mark in the second-tier.

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The powerful forward had a largely successful three-and-a-half years at Deepdale, prompting West Ham United to take a gamble on him in January 2018. However, his transfer to the Hammers turned out to be an unproductive one.

Whilst it is unlikely that Hugill will start the game against his former club, he will no doubt be eager to make an impact off the bench in what could be his first league appearance for the Canaries.

Ben Pearson

Manchester United youth product Ben Pearson has been a mainstay in Preston’s side for the last four seasons and has racked up over 150 appearances for the Championship club.

The 25-year-old plays a key role in the Lilywhites machine as a holding midfielder, with his protection of the backline allowing the team’s forward-thinking players to operate with greater freedom.

Norwich have a number of dangerous attacking options to choose from, so if North End are to have any chance of coming away from this game with a positive result, Pearson will need to provide a strong performance.

Pre-match comments

Norwich head coach Daniel Farke has spoken about how good it will be to have the backing of a small number of Canaries supporters for the visit of Preston.

He said: “It's great news. The first step, I was hoping for a few more. But it will be great to have yellow shirts back in our stadium.

“Hopefully we can give them something to cheer. It's a supporter's game and this will never change. For that, it's important to have them back.

“Hopefully we can start to increase the number but we have to see how it develops. Let's concentrate on this first step and doing it properly. If everything goes well, we can then look at increasing the numbers.”

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When discussing North End’s quiet transfer window so far, manager Alex Neil revealed that the reason for their lack of activity is because they are keen to only sign players who will improve their squad.

"I wouldn't say we are close with anything,” Neil stated.

"The difficulty we have got is trying to make our squad better with what we have got to spend to improve, as we need to improve. What I'm not going to do is accept just any player on the books to tick us along.

"The squad I have got at the moment we need to add quality to. I don't just need another body - the squad is currently in good shape.”

How to watch

This game kicks off at 3pm and is not on TV, but it is available to watch on either ‘iFollow Norwich’ or ‘iFollow PNE’, with a match pass costing £10.

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