Preview: Nottingham Forest vs. Preston North End - prediction, team news, lineups

Nottingham Forest head into Saturday's fixture with Preston North End looking to record their first win in four Championship fixtures.

However, Preston make the trip to the City Ground on the back of ending the long unbeaten run of leaders Bournemouth earlier this week.

Match preview

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Now eight matches into his reign as Nottingham Forest boss, Steve Cooper is realising that life at the City Ground is not as rosy as he may have thought.

On the back of a four-match winning streak, Forest have collected just two points from three games, both of which have been earned through late equalisers.

Their most recent win against Bristol City also came courtesy of two last-gasp strikes, and a trend is developing where they are struggling to gain an upper hand during the opening three quarters.

While Cooper will be delighted with the character of his squad, he is still waiting for something to click with the rest of their game.

Still, a return of 15 points from eight matches is promotion-level form, and there will be no complaints if that ratio can be replicated over the coming months.

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There have been times this season when a succession of draws have undermined the fine work that Frankie McAvoy is doing at Deepdale.

However, he is now starting to reap the benefits, his Preston team backing up a home victory against Luton Town with one of the performances of the season at Bournemouth.

North End had to ride their luck to overcome the runaway Cherries, but they were fully deserving of their maximum points at the Vitality Stadium.

Now sitting just four points adrift of fifth position, another match-winning performance in the East Midlands will provide Preston with the momentum required to emerge as dark horses for the playoffs in the long term.

That said, it should not go unnoticed that Wednesday's triumph against Bournemouth represented their first away league win of the season.

Team News

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With Max Lowe available to return to the Forest XI, Jack Colback could return to central midfield at the expense of James Garner.

Having netted Forest's late equaliser against Sheffield United, Lewis Grabban is in line to replace Lyle Taylor in attack.

Philip Zinckernagel will also hope to come back into the team ahead of Joe Lolley.

Barring any late fitness issues, Preston boss McAvoy could stick with the team which started at Bournemouth.

Brad Potts, Greg Cunningham and Daniel Johnson are all alternatives if he wants to introduce fresh legs in certain areas of the pitch.

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Samba; Worrall, Figueiredo, McKenna; Spence, Yates, Garner, Lowe; Lolley; Johnson, Grabban

Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Van den Berg, Bauer, Hughes; Barkhuizen, McCann, Whiteman, Earl; Browne; Riis, Maguire

We say: Nottingham Forest 2-1 Preston North End

While Preston will be on a high after their visit to the South Coast, it remains to be seen how much that performance took out of them. With that in mind, we are backing Forest to use their home advantage to edge this contest in the closing stages.

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