Town boss Mick McCarthy believes Saturday’s opponents Preston will be targeting more than just survival in their first season back in the Championship. The Lilywhites were promoted via the play-offs in May after four years in League One.
McCarthy thinks the Lancastrians, who the table-topping Blues face at bogey ground Deepdale, could even challenge for the top six, having recorded 0-0 draws with Middlesbrough and Rotherham and a 1-0 away victory against the MK Dons so far in the league.
"They’re certainly beyond survival,” he said. "They’ve not conceded a goal yet. They’re hard to break down, they’re playing 3-5-2, almost five at the back at times, so they’re making it very hard for teams.
"I suppose that’s OK, but then if you’re not getting wins and you have to try and open up and do something different, then we see a different side. But at the moment they look a really tough team and they’ve got some good players in there as well.”
He added: "They have defended very, very well so far, but my view on that is always that it’s got to crack at some stage.
"They’re not going to go a full season doing it, are they? So why not Saturday? And we’ve got some good forward players.”
The Town manager says the mood in the Preston camp will be positive following their promotion, in stark contrast to the clubs relegated from the Premier League.
"It’s a different feel in terms of acclimatising to it,” he said. "You come up full of vim and vigour and wanting to continue your winning run with momentum, and that’s what they’re doing.
"For the teams coming down it does have a real negative effect on the place when you’ve been relegated. Even Burnley with all the players who have played in this league, they don’t want to play in this league any more, they want to play in the Premier League, like the rest of us.
"It hurts when you first come down. But when you get promoted, you come up and you’re far more enthusiastic about it because they actually wanted to be in this league, Preston.
"The ones who came down didn’t want to be in this league. It becomes a bit of a chore preparing for Charlton and Ipswich and wherever else in the league and not preparing for Chelsea and Manchester United and all those places.”
McCarthy says it’s important for his team to be flexible as they come up against opposition teams employing different systems.
"We’ve had a look at them this morning, they are playing 3-5-2 and you’ll see my team on Saturday,” he said.
"We’ve got to have flexibility. We went to Brentford and we handled their 4-3-3 with our 4-4-2 comfortably for most of the game, except for the last knockings.
"Stevenage caused us more problems than that but perhaps that was because I changed my team and we’re not always adept at tucking in and doing that 4-4-2 the way we like to do it.
"Sheffield Wednesday caused us more problems at 4-3-3. I had to change the team and go to 4-3-3 for a while just after we scored to stop them playing through us. And we did it.
"We reverted back to our 4-4-2 when it settled down and we ended up winning the game. We’ve got real flexibility and they understand how to do it.
"I’ve no problems with whatever system somebody’s playing against us and if we had to go 3-5-2 and match them up that wouldn’t faze us at all either.”
McCarthy is a big fan of his Preston opposite number Simon Grayson: "He’s been great, he’s done very, very well with Preston. We went up there and they beat us in the FA Cup in January last year.
"They had a good team then and they should have got automatically promoted last season, it was an amazing result at Colchester in the last game of the season [when they lost 1-0], and I was delighted for Colchester that they stayed up.
"But then to recover from that and to win the play-offs like they did was a really good achievement, I thought. It showed the strength of character of both Simon and his staff, and his team.”
He says the Blues weren’t at full strength in the replay at Deepdale, which the home side won 3-2: "I don’t think you saw my best team, to be honest. I’m not going to lie about that. I seem to remember I left quite a few out because we were trying to get promoted.
"They were all good pros but it wasn’t my strongest team. And then, of course, we didn’t get back here until about four o’clock in the morning and we got slapped at Millwall on the Saturday. So that wasn’t a good week for us. But you’re seeing the best of my team now, it doesn’t matter about last January.”
McCarthy is again unlikely to make too many changes to his side with the squad flying up to the North-West today.
Bartosz Bialkowski will continue in goal with skipper Luke Chambers at right-back, Jonas Knudsen on the left and Tommy Smith and Christophe Berra at the heart of the defence.
Cole Skuse and Jonathan Douglas are again set to be in the middle of midfield with Ryan Fraser, who is fine after jarring his knee against Burnley, on the left and Ainsley Maitland-Niles on the right.
If McCarthy looks to switch to a five-man midfield at some stage to match the home side Maitland-Niles could move inside with striker Freddie Sears switching to a wide role as he has already done on a number of occasions this season.
Alongside Sears, McCarthy may be forced into a change with Daryl Murphy still suffering with the tight calf which forced him off at half-time against the Clarets.
The Town boss is unlikely to take any risks with last season’s 27-goal Championship top scorer and David McGoldrick, who signed a new three-year contract yesterday, could be handed his first league start of the campaign.
Full-back or midfielder Jonny Parr is also a doubt with his thigh problem, while Kevin Bru and Teddy Bishop remain sidelined with hamstring injuries and Luke Hyam is a longer-term absentee having undergone knee surgery.
Academy midfielder James Blanchfield, defender George Fowler and strikers Shane McLoughlin and Sam Ford have travelled with the first team squad for the first time and but have made the trip to gain experience of being with the first team and are not in the squad.
Preston boss Grayson says his side won’t face many tougher games than this weekend’s fixture.
"It doesn't get much harder than Mick McCarthy's team on Saturday,” he told the Preston club site. "We know we are going to be up against it but we are looking forward to it.
"You know what Mick's team is going to be like, regardless of the personnel that he's got playing for him. They are organised, they're disciplined and hard working and they are going to make it difficult for you to try and win a football match.
"They have the main core of their team from last year, and they've set off the season really well so far and I'm sure they will be wanting to keep that going.”
Striker Jermaine Beckford, who scored a hat-trick in their 4-0 play-off final victory over Swindon in May, is yet to play any part this season having suffered a knock in pre-season but isn't far away from a return and could be included in the squad.
Striker Jordan Hugill is suspended having been red-carded in last week's win against the MK Dons.
The Blues have a poor record against the Lilywhites historically, winning nine games (eight in the league), drawing eight (seven) and losing 13 (11).
The teams last met in the FA Cup in January 2014 when Preston beat the Blues 3-2 after a replay at Deepdale, the first tie having ended 1-1.
At Portman Road in the first game, David McGoldrick followed up to score in the 38th minute after having a second penalty in a week saved before Kevin Davies equalised for the visitors four minutes later.
In the replay, Lilywhites sub Joe Garner scored a 20-minute second-half hat-trick as the League One side came from behind to win.
After a goalless first half, Frank Nouble put the Blues in front but Garner hit back twice in a minute before sub David McGoldrick equalised, however, the Preston striker’s third in the 87th minute sealed the victory.
PRESTON: Tickets will be available on the day at #PNE. No price increase. 750 pre-sold currently #ITFC– ITFC_PlanetBlue (@ITFC_PlanetBlue) August 20, 2015
The teams last met in the Championship in the 2010/11 season when the Lancastrians won 1-0 at home - Iain Hume scoring the goal - and the Blues 2-1 at Portman Road when Jason Scotland and David Norris were on target for Town and Paul Coutts for the visitors.
The Blues’ last win at Deepdale was back in January 1980 when Bobby Robson’s Town ran out 3-0 victors with Paul Mariner netting twice and Alan Brazil once. Their last win in the league was in January 1966 when Bobby Kellard scored the only goal for Bill McGarry’s side.
Those making the trip should take care to avoid drinking the local tap water with Preston's water supply affected by the outbreak of the parasitic bug Cryptosporidium.
Saturday’s referee is Mark Brown from East Yorkshire, who has shown four yellow cards and no reds in four games so far this season.
Brown’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 defeat at Leeds in March in which he booked Cole Skuse and Kevin Bru and no home players.
Prior to that he took charge of the 2-0 away win at Huddersfield in April 2014, the 2-1 home victory over Burnley in November 2012 and the 3-2 win against Doncaster at Portman Road in January 2011.
Town squad from: Bialkowski, Gerken, Emmanuel, Knudsen, Kenlock, Parr, Chambers, Berra, Smith, Yorwerth, Skuse, Douglas, Tabb, Coke, McDonnell, Maitland-Niles, Fraser, Touré, Murphy, McGoldrick, Sears, Pitman.