Two of this season's Championship play-off hopefuls go head to head on Saturday afternoon, as Preston North End host Swansea City at Deepdale.

Both these sides are still well in the hunt for the top six this season, meaning both will be desperate to claim all three points this weekend, not only to boost their own promotion push this season, but also damage those of a rival.

Football League World will be reporting live from Deepdale for the Saturday afternoon 15:00 kick-off, so we've gathered together everything you need to know in the build-up to this one.

These two sides played out a five-goal thriller at the Liberty Stadium when they last met on the third weekend of the season, with Swansea ultimately running out 3-2 winners in Wales.

It is however Preston who go into this one with the marginal advantage in the Championship standings, with their 3-0 win at Barnsley and Swansea's 2-0 defeat at Stoke last time out meaning it is North End who begin the weekend seventh in the Championship table, one place and one points ahead of their visitors on Saturday.

With sixth-placed Bristol City only a point further ahead of Preston, both North End and Swansea could potentially find themselves in the top-six come the end of the weekend, highlighting just how close the race for the play-offs is at the minute - and how important every win could be this season.

Interestingly, while Preston have been much more prolific in front of goal than their latest opponents so far this season, they have also been more open in defence, meaning it could be the strength of these two side's backlines that has a big say on the outcome of this meeting.

With that in mind, it looks as though the return to fitness of one full-back on either side could be rather welcome for both Preston and Swansea.

For the hosts, Alex Neil could be set to have Andrew Hughes available to return at left-back after he came through 60 minutes of a reserve game against Blackburn in midweek.

At the other end of the pitch, with Connor Roberts said to be touch and go after suffering a shoulder injury in that defeat at Swansea, the return to fitness of Kyle Naughton could be particularly timely for Steve Cooper, who still looks to be without Mike van der Hoorn at the back for the trip to Deepdale.

The absence of the big Dutchman is something that Preston could look to exploit on Saturday, particularly with their two top scorers - Daniel Johnson and Tom Barkhuizen - likely to be high on confidence after the finding the net in that victory at Bolton.

Indeed, with Preston and Swansea both averaging more than half of the possession in their games so far this season, neither side should be short of opportunities on Saturday, again reinforcing the importance that both defences could have on the outcome of this latest clash.

This, therefore, looks set up to be an intriguing encounter on Saturday, not just in respect of the 90 minutes, but potentially also in the battle for promotion over the next few months.