Preston North End vs Derby County Prediction: Preston aiming to end their winless run

Preston North End will welcome Derby County at Deepdale Stadium in Game Week 16 of the English Championship. Preston aiming to end their winless run. Who will come out on top after 90 minutes?

Preston North End, having established top-half positions in the Championship in both the last two seasons, would face a stiffer challenge under manager Paul Heckingbottom in the 2024-25 season. Heckingbottom will have to really sweat it out to get the team into the league for the second time in 2025.

Before the final international break of the year, Preston North End had a run of seven games without a win, in both the Championship and EFL Cup. The Lilywhites' dismal performance against Portsmouth, in itself threatened with relegation, produced a 1-3 loss. Emil Riis Jakobsen was Preston North End's lone scorer.

With only three wins from their first 15 Championship matches this season, Preston North End currently stands at 20th spot on the league standings table. Preston North End is level on points with 22nd-placed Cardiff City and 10 points behind Watford, who currently holds the last playoff spot.

Despite their tribulations, Preston have fared much better at their home ground, Deepdale, where they have banked all three of their victories and 12 of their 15 points this term. They may yet harbor reasonable hopes of a good outcome from their next game despite suffering two successive home defeats by a 6-1 aggregate score.

Woodman; Storey, Whatmough, Hughes; Potts, Frokjaer-Jensen, Ledson, McCann, Kesler-Hayden; Jakobsen, Greenwood

Having secured their automatic promotion to League One in April after an absence spanning two years at the second tier, Derby County is now proving its competitiveness at the Championship. The team faced physical opposition in their recent game against a strong Lancashire side. Although they were defeated at Stoke City, Derby bounced back with a victory against Coventry City and drew with Plymouth Argyle. The team surprised many by currently sitting in 12th place in the Championship, performing better than expected. To have a chance at a top-six finish, Derby must improve their away form, as they have only collected five points from eight away games so far this season.

Zetterstrom; Wilson, Nelson, Cashin, Forsyth; Adams, Jackson, Goudmijn, Thompson, Mendez-Laing; Yates

After two weeks of mulling over their recent struggles, Preston will be itching to get back to second-tier action and beat Derby at Deepdale. Given Derby's difficulties on the road this term, newly-promoted Derby will probably not leave Lancashire on the weekend with a smile on their faces.