Blackburn v Preston: Oppose goals as overachievers clash

• Blackburn have W8-D0-L2 at Ewood Park

• Preston have lost just twice on their travels

• BTTS No has won in 71% of combined contests

• Read and follow our daily World Cup Live Blog here

Blackburn eager to bounce back

Blackburn went into the mid-season break sitting pretty in third. Rovers boast the most Championship wins thus far, although there was a guarded mood around Ewood Park after Jon Dahl Tomasson's team fell to a deeply disappointing 3-0 defeat against local rivals Burnley in their final outing of November.

Reflecting on the reverse, Tomasson said: "We were all disappointed. We should have done more - that was not a good day. I was disappointed for the supporters because they're important games. We haven't had a full post-match with the group, but I've spoken with a lot of the players and players have been very open that it wasn't good enough."

Blackburn jetted off to Marbella to prepare for the return of league football, with a hard week of training involving the majority of the squad, plus two friendly fixtures that saw Rovers record 4-0 and 2-0 wins over Hearts and Ajax respectively.

Sam Gallagher was fit enough to feature in training whilst Jake Garrett and Jack Vale should be OK for Saturday.

Preston looking to make a statement

Preston suffered a 4-2 defeat to Millwall in their final encounter before the World Cup break. North End did manage to drag themselves back from being two goals down, only to let the opportunity to win the game slip away, ending in a crumbling heavy loss with head coach Ryan Lowe left to rue 'criminal' defending in his post-match press conference.

The PNE boss said, "The goals are criminal. I am disappointed with those because that is not us. At half-time I said to the group to not do anything silly and just do the basics right. I have shown the lads the goals because we can't just leave it to dwell. We'll have a bit of time off now but we'll be back to right those wrongs when the season returns."

Lowe and his backroom staff and spent the time off reviewing the first 21 fixture of the campaign, as well as having a firm eye on the January transfer window. The Lilywhites are also talking to the likes of Ryan Ledson, Liam Lindsay, Greg Cunningham and Daniel Johnson, who all see their contracts expire in 2023 with renewals potentially on the menu.

Difficult to split overachieving pair

Blackburn did the double over Lancashire rivals Preston last season, including a 4-1 thrashing in the duos most recent meeting in April, and have now triumphed in three of the last past four head-to-heads.

However, Rovers' success last term is their only victory in their past six Ewood Park encounters against North End dating back to 2016 (W1-D2-L3).

Blackburn 2.305/4 have been one of the Championship's chief overperformers. Rovers sit third (W12-D0-L9) yet Expected Points (xP) rankings have Jon Dahl Tomasson's troops down in 19^th - in fact, only Huddersfield and Rotherham are returning worse Expected Goals (xG) ratio figures thus far. Nevertheless, the hosts have posted W8-D0-L2 at Ewood Park.

Preston 3.6013/5 are only outside of the play-off places on goal difference with Ryan Lowe's charges also overachieving according to the underlying metrics. The Lilywhites are ranked 18^th on xP and are also sitting in 18^th in the xG ratio standings, although the bulk of North End's most promising efforts have come away from Deepdale this term (W5-D3-L2).

Both sides may not oblige

The Championship has been relatively low on goals in 2022/23 with the league averaging 2.42 goals per-game, and 56% of matches providing profit for Under 2.5 Goals 1.654/6 backers.

Saturday's showdown two teams in the bottom-six for average goals per-game figures this season with the pair combining to see 26/42 (62%) Under 2.5 Goals winners.

Those figures drop significantly when we dip into the Both Teams To Score 1.875/6 market where Blackburn have delivered just 5/21 (24%) winning BTTS wagers, with Preston following suit in 7/21 (33%).

Therefore, a huge 30/42 (71%) of their combined contests have seen at least one side fail to score as the duo have kept 19 (45%) clean sheets together.

With that in mind, backing 'No' as the outsider in the Both Teams To Score column at 1.9010/11 makes perfect sense as our best potential play at Ewood Park.