Preston will definitely be without striker Chris Brown when they travel to Portman Road for the season opener on Saturday. Former Canary Brown, who scored against the Blues at Deepdale in April, has an ankle injury.

Manager Alan Irvine said: "Chris Brown is not going to be available. He's got a little bit of a problem that we are not quite getting to the bottom of, but we will keep on working on Chris and hopefully he will be back soon."

Town's main area where decisions have to be made is defence with Ivan Campo agreeing to sign earlier today, while manager Jim Magilton says Alex Bruce isn't totally out of his thoughts, despite having dropped into the reserves for much of pre-season and with Pim Balkestein and Tommy Smith starting against West Ham: "Alex Bruce may play Saturday, but I am not going to make changes for change's sake.

"We had a team chat on Tuesday and to pick holes in the back four would be unfair. You defend as a team, and we gave the ball away cheaply for a couple of goals, and one poor clearance out of defence.

"West Ham had eight shots and scored five goals, and the calibre of our opposition was exactly right at this time.

"Tommy Smith coped well against West Brom where they had just one front man, but to play against Dean Ashton and Craig Bellamy is a different proposition. It is maybe a case of keeping Tommy, and Pim Balkestein, in the team.”

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