It's a Lancashire derby in the Sky Bet Championship on Monday night when Preston North End host Blackburn Rovers at Deepdale.

The home side will be looking to bounce back with a win after failing to pick up the three points in either of their matches over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

They were beaten by promotion-winning Fulham last time out, but North End will be looking to take advantage of a team who are on the ropes when Blackburn turn up at Deepdale.

Rovers are free-falling and their season is really getting away from them now, with no wins in their last five league outings.

Tony Mowbray's side have just two wins in their last ten, meaning they now sit outside the play-off positions - remarkably, given they were looking like challenging for automatic promotion earlier this year.

Rovers have a three point deficit to Sheffield United in sixth with three games remaining, and so cannot afford to keep dropping points week in, week out.

With that being said, Sky Sports pundit and EFL expert David Prutton has them just doing that, as he thinks it'll be a 1-1 draw when the two sides meet in the Monday night fixture.

"This season is probably not ending how Ryan Lowe would have hoped for Preston," Prutton wrote in his Sky Sports column.

 

 

"But they are comfortable enough and he'll want to end it with a bit of success so they have something to build on going into next."

"Blackburn's hopes of the play-offs are petering out fast."

"It has been a nightmare 2022 for them and it's hard to see them winning their final three games to give them any kind of chance of hauling their way back into the top six.

"Draw here for me. Prutton predicts: 1-1."

The Verdict

Oh what could have been for Blackburn Rovers this season.

It was looking so promising at the turn of the year, but their form in 2022 has been terrible.

With that said, they still have a chance to get into the play-offs, but given their form of late, it would take a brave man to back them to do so.

Lowe and Preston on the other hand would no doubt love to be the ones to put another nail in Rovers' promotion coffin with a win over them on Monday night.

Preston sit 15th at present, but if results go their way this weekend, and they win on Monday, Lowe's side could move into, or at the very least, closer to the top half.