Preston North End vs Hull City

Newly-promoted Hull City travel to Deepdale to take on Preston North End in their opening 2021/22 Championship fixture.

An impressive four-match winning streak to conclude the 2020/21 season only helped Preston secure an underwhelming 13th-place finish in the Championship. Despite experiencing a torrid last season, the ‘Lilywhites’ have been relatively quiet in the ongoing transfer window, which speaks poorly of the club’s ambition to fight for Premier League promotion. A cagey, low-scoring contest is on the cards, nonetheless, with each of Preston’s last six opening league fixtures yielding under 1.5 total goals (W2, D1, L3). Despite winning their final two home matches last season ‘to nil,’ Preston were one of only six teams to amass fewer points at home than they did on the road. Interestingly, none of their previous eight Championship H2Hs as hosts have ended level (W6, L2), with the last four producing a single-goal margin.

In the meantime, Hull City will embark on their third Championship campaign in four years in high spirits after tallying 89 points to finish top of the League One last season. The ‘Tigers’ can also find encouragement in avoiding defeat in eight of their closing nine away games to conclude the 2020/21 season (W6, D2). Despite getting on the scoresheet in each of their last six away league openings, the visitors came out victorious only twice in that run (D3, L1). What’s more, they have succumbed to a single 90-min defeat across their previous three cofmpetitive trips to Preston (W1, D1), scoring a total of five goals in that sequence. Yet, a lack of quality signings could come back to haunt Hull this term.