Fleetwood Town are close to finishing their pre-season schedule, as Preston North End make the short trip to Highbury Stadium this Friday for a pre-season friendly.
Town’s pre-season is coming to a close and have had a good showing throughout. Uwe Rosler’s side have come away with wins against Queen of the South, FK Jablonec and Bolton Wanderers in the last three weeks.
Preston – who finished 11th in the Sky Bet Championship last season – will be finishing their pre-season at Highbury on Friday, and have won four out of six games so far. The Lilywhites have come out on top against Bamber Bridge (7-0), Stockport County (2-1), Morecambe (2-0) and Accrington Stanley (3-2) but weren’t able to deal the final blow against Newcastle United, drawing 1-1.
In their last pre-season fixture, they were beaten at home by Premier League side Burnley 2-1. PNE’s new signing Sean Maguire introduced himself with an impressive solo goal but it wasn’t enough as goals from Jon Walters and Kevin Long earned the Clarets all three points.
TEAM NEWS
Town rested a lot of playing earlier on in the week so they should all be refreshed for the home derby against Preston.
Even though new signing Maguire was fielded midweek against Burnley, he is likely to make an appearance after scoring a solo-goal on Tuesday.
ONE TO WATCH
Local-lad, Barkhuizen has started his 2017/18 campaign off like any striker would like to as he has scored four goals in six pre-season games from PNE.
The attacker started his career playing junior football for Blackpool Rangers, and was scouted by Blackpool in 2009 as a first-year scholar in their youth department. A year later, as a second-year scholar, he made his first team debut in the second round of the League Cup against Milton Keynes Dons away from home.
Whilst at Blackpool, he spent time on loan at Hereford United, where he scored 12 in 39 games, Fleetwood, where he played 13 and scored one and finally at Morecambe in 2014.
After making 21 appearances for the Tangerines in five years, he made the move to Morecambe on a two-year contract. Barkhuizen played a total of 60 games there, netting the ball 17 times before he cancelled his contract through mutual consent.
In November 2016, the 24-year-old was handed the number 29 shirt at Preston after signing a two-and-a-half-year deal with the club. Since joining, he made his mark in the latter half of the 2016/17 season and this pre-season.