I’m sure at the start of the season, after winning promotion through the play-offs from League two last year – consolidating themselves at this level would have been the goal for Graham Alexander and his Fleetwood side. However, as we approach April and the final few weeks of the season, their goal may well have changed to finishing in the top six. I have written before about how competitive the race for the play-offs are in this division and Fleetwood are another of the teams who harbour hopes of finishing in one of those final two places. Results went their way on Saturday with Sheffield United and Peterborough both losing but they have to capitalise on that and close the gap on sixth placed Rochdale who sit four points above them.
If you asked Simon Grayson if Preston held a realistic chance of winning the League One title before a ball was kicked this weekend then he would have laughed at you. He may well still scoff at the the question but it is a little more realistic after Bristol City lost at home to Barnsley on Saturday. It means that North End still have a deficit of 11 points to make up on the leaders but they do have two games in hand. If they can win those then it certainly would put a different complexion on the title race. Of course, their main aim is to finish anywhere in the top two to ensure automatic qualification and a long-awaited to the Championship. That itself is a much closer battle at the moment as they are three points clear heading into this fixture.
Similar to last season, scoring goals has been a struggle for Fleetwood. They are a team who are very much built on a good defence but they have do lack a prolific goalscorer and it could be the difference between finishing in the top six or not. Josh Morris is the current top scorer with seven in the league which asks the question, where would they be if they did have someone who found the back of the net more regularly. Incredibly, they have only scored three or more goals twice in the league all season, and when you combine that with a defence defensive record, their games average the second fewest number of goals in League One.
Having being knocked out of the play-offs at the semi final stage last season, Grayson would have laid down the challenge of gaining automatic promotion, and avoiding the of the end of season drama, at the beginning of this campaign. For a while it looked like the would have to settle for that route but a very strong recent run of form which has seen them win eight and draw two of their last 10 games. They are also scoring a lot more goals and one play in particular who is doing just that is Joe Garner, who has found the net seven times in his last six games, and has 20 league goals to his name this season.
This is a very important game for both clubs who harbour ambitions of playing a Championship football next season, albeit with different expectancy levels attached to their chances of doing so. There is some extra spice added to the game as Fleetwood’s manager, Alexander, faces a club he spent nearly 10 years with as a player. Preston won the first meeting 3-2 back in October and because they are on such a good run of form, I think they are well placed to do the double over Fleetwood and take another step towards automatic promotion.
Preston 4/5 @ Ladbrokes
