Baggies head to struggling Preston with renewed confidence

Preston North End v West Bromwich Albion; Deepdale, Saturday 24th October 2026, 3pm

After successive derby defeats, James Morrison’s team have responded strongly with successive comeback victories and will head to rock-bottom Preston North End with renewed confidence. Given the Lilywhites’ abject start to the season, there will also be an expectation that the Baggies can claim all three points.

North End have had a desperate start to the season – after a victory on penalties at home to League One Huddersfield Town in the Carabao Cup, they were beaten at newly promoted Bolton Wanderers on the opening day before losing at home to Wolves and then being thumped 4-0 at home by Everton in the second round of the cup. Another two defeats, away to Charlton Athletic and at home to Bristol City, were followed by their only victory of the season, a 2-1 home triumph over arch rivals Blackburn Rovers. After another loss at Watford, a 1-0 home defeat to newly promoted Lincoln City proved to be the final straw for the club bosses and Paul Heckingbottom was dismissed as head coach.

For many commentators with much more knowledge of the club than me, Heckingbottom was probably as much a victim as the culprit for the poor start. Uncertainty surrounding a potential takeover contributed to a poor summer transfer window when some of their best players were sold without adequate replacements – Ben Whiteman and Milutin Osmajić being the standout examples. A lengthy injury list has not helped, but the fact remained that the club’s slump started at the beginning of 2026 and the decision was probably inevitable given the start to the new campaign.

New boss, Graham Alexander, may be questioning his decision to leave a Bradford City side that he had guided from League Two to the top of League One to take the reins at Deepdale, with his 372 league appearances for the Lilywhites an obvious pull to the heart strings. North End have lost all three of his games in charge, 1-0 at home to Millwall and four-goal defeats at Birmingham and Wrexham, and he has admitted this week that there is “no magic wand” to turn things around. Two first team coaches who had been part of Heckingbottom’s staff left the club this week as Alexander looks to make significant changes to his backroom setup. From a Baggies point of view, hopefully the improvements he is hoping to make will not have had too much of an impact just yet and Mozza’s team can take advantage of their opponents’ struggles.

Back-to-back wins for Albion should not mask their own issues, particularly that they had to come from behind on both occasions. The first half at Wrexham was pretty desperate from both teams, but I felt the Baggies were the better side after the break, even before they went behind to Moore’s wonder strike, and they fully deserved the victory. Against Rovers on Saturday, the visitors capitalised on two opportunities, both of which could be construed as resulting from Albion errors, but Morrison’s team largely dominated the game and, once again, were well worth the three points.

However, there is no hiding the fact that the Baggies are conceding too many goals and giving up too many opportunities. The goals-against column would be significantly worse had it not been for some excellent stops from Max O’Leary this season. That is borne out by the statistics in that Albion’s xGA in the Championship this season, their expected goals against, is 17.1 compared to the actual 10 goals they have conceded. Only Southampton have a higher difference between xGA and GA in the division. The Baggies’ recovery under Morrison in the final twelve games of last season was built on clean sheets, with the team shutting out the opponent in seven of those matches – Albion have only kept two clean sheets this season albeit only twice have they conceded more than once a league match. It is undoubtedly an area that Mozza and his coaching staff need to keep working on.

Of course, the other end of the pitch is not exactly firing on all cylinders either. Jimmy-Jay Morgan has gone six games without a goal while Aune Heggebø scored just his third goal of the season at Wrexham last week. Furthermore, Price’s goal at Wrexham was his first since August and it was good to see him find the net again on Saturday, even if his panenka will have given his head coach palpitations! The five goals in the last two games were extremely welcome having only scored five in the previous seven games. The two derby games apart, Albion have largely dominated games this season but have not always been able to find the killer final ball around the box, and it is something that Morrison, himself, has spoken about.

While these criticisms are valid, it is important to remember that this squad is still getting to know one another – five of the starting line-up against Blackburn Rovers were new signings – and they are also a very young side with many experiencing the Championship for the first time. It is also worth reminding ourselves that the Baggies are in fifth place just three points off the top, a far higher position than most Albion fans will have expected. In truth, the story of the campaign so far is a hugely positive one – the criticisms are there only because the undoubted potential of this squad is apparent and, with the right coaching and support, they will only get better.

One negative from the victory over Blackburn was the injury to Toby Collyer. The former Manchester United man made his fourth start in five games against Rovers including all three matches since the international break. He pulled up just before half-time with a hamstring strain and Morrison was clear to point out after the game that he shouldn’t have played him. However, his performances had been such that he was difficult to leave out – I thought he was excellent in both the Blues and Wrexham games, and his absence for several weeks is a blow. Thankfully, central midfield is an area where Albion are well blessed with capable options with Diakité, Molumby and Nzingoula all regulars there, while Styles, Whitwell, Myhre and Price can all step in should it be necessary.

For Saturday’s trip to Preston, it will be interesting to see how Mozza approaches the game. The hosts are obviously in a dreadful run of form and have been shipping goals, eight in their last two matches. However, new boss Graham Alexander has had his first full week of training with the squad and we could see something different from them this weekend.

At Wrexham, Mozza went with what looked like a 4-4-1-1 with Molumby and Collyer holding and Nzingoula off Stewart – against Rovers, it was more of a 4-1-4-1 with Collyer holding, before being replaced by Diakité, and Molumby pushed further forward. Those were very much variations on a theme but against Blues, he had played a more traditional 4-4-2 with Morgan and Heggebø as a striking pair – the way Blues were able to play easily through the Albion midfield probably influenced Mozza’s choice to play an extra man in there.

With Preston having switched between a back four and a back three under Heckingbottom, all three matches under Alexander have been with a back three, a system he also played with success at Bradford City, so I think we can expect the same approach on Saturday. There is no doubt that Stewart struggled for much of the game against the Red Dragons’ three big centre backs at the Racecourse, with Nzingoula not really getting close enough to him to offer support. Mozza may opt to switch to a front two again, perhaps with Stewart and Morgan, both to occupy the back three and, hopefully, capitalise on the Lilywhites’ fragile defence.

Nat Phillips found himself out of the starting line-up for successive league games for the first time since March with Mozza preferring the pairing of Campbell and Mepham in the last two matches. Interestingly, Phillips has been brought on in both games – it is unusual for centre backs to be changed unless there is an injury, so it is, perhaps, Morrison indicating that Phillips remains very much part of his plans and that he trusts the experienced defender to help see out the final minutes of a match. We shall see who gets the nod from the start tomorrow.

Albion fans will be travelling to Deepdale in expectation that their boys will claim the victory, but as we have always known, there are no straightforward games in the Championship. Not only has Alexander had a full week to work on the changes he wants to see, but the conditions don’t look like being suited to the Baggies’ slick passing style. Heavy rain is forecast throughout Saturday and, with Storm Austen already depositing a huge amount of water on Lancashire on Friday, I can only hope that the drainage at Deepdale will cope and the match will go ahead. Such conditions are always likely to be something of a leveller, but let’s hope Mozza’s men can still come out on top.

History

These two Founder Members of the Football League will meet for the 125th time in major competitions on Saturday afternoon, the 60th time at Deepdale, the only ground that the Lilywhites have ever called home, and the 113th time in the Football League. While North End were undoubtedly the stronger club in the 19th century, with the Throstles winning just 6 of the 26 meetings before the dawn of the 20th century, Albion now hold a decisive lead in the head-to-head record with 55 wins to Preston’s 41.

Of course, the men from the Black Country won the most important of those Victorian-era matches, the 1888 FA Cup Final, and repeated that feat 66 years later in 1954. The Baggies lead the FA Cup tie record 6-2 with the most recent in that competition being a 2-0 win at Deepdale in January 2005 with what was Bryan Robson’s first victory as Albion manager.

Albion’s lead in the head-to-head record has been largely established in the 21st century with the Baggies winning 17 of the 27 meeting since the turn of the century starting with a 3-1 victory at the Hawthorns in November 2000 thanks to a Lee Hughes hat-trick. He is one of many Albion strikers to have scored more than one goal in this fixture in recent times. Dwight Gayle scored a treble in 2019 which Bob Taylor, Scott Dobie, Robert Earnshaw, Nathan Ellington, Okay Yokuşlu and, most recently in January 2025, Josh Maja have all scored a brace against Preston North End.

The Lilywhites last recorded a victory over Albion four years ago in October 2022 when Emil Riis Jakobsen scored the only goal of a Championship fixture at Deepdale. Since then, the Baggies have won six and drawn once, in November 2024 when Riis Jaksobsen was once again on the scoresheet to cancel out Karlan Grant’s opener. Albion have visited Deepdale on seven occasions since their 2018 relegation, winning four, drawing two and losing just one.

The most impressive of those victories was, of course, in September 2023 when Carlos Corberán’s team ran out 4-0 winners thanks to goals from Darnell Furlong, Alex Mowatt, Matt Phillips and Kyle Bartley. Jayson Molumby and Conor Townsend were both substitutes that day, the only two players from the current Albion squad to be involved that day. Four of Preston’s team that day were involved in their 4-1 defeat at Wrexham last weekend while another, club skipper Ali McCann, only missed out through injury.

That 4-0 win is unsurprisingly Albion’s best ever win at Preston and, indeed, they have only matched it at home. The Lilywhites’ biggest win over the Baggies is 5-0, a result they have achieved twice at Deepdale and once at Stoney Lane, all in the 19th century.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

18 Apr 2026 – League Championship
Preston North End 0
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Maja, Dike)

Albion’s Record against Preston North End