Nottingham Forest vs Preston preview
Friday 7 December 2018 12:15, UK
Nottingham Forest continue to be without the suspended Tobias Figueiredo for Saturday's visit of Preston.
The defender was sent off in last week's 5-5 draw at Aston Villa and sits out the second of a three-match ban. Danny Fox is still ruled out with a foot injury with Hillal Soudani (knee) remaining sidelined. Forest are fifth in the Sky Bet Championship, five points behind the top two.
Preston's top scorer Callum Robinson is sidelined after a hamstring operation last week. He is likely to be out for a number of months and joins long-term casualties Billy Bodin and Josh Harrop (both knee), who are out for the season.
Sean Maguire (hamstring) and Daniel Johnson (thigh) are also still missing for boss Alex Neil. Ben Pearson (thigh) and skipper Tom Clarke (broken nose) missed the 3-0 defeat at Birmingham and will be assessed.
Opta stats
Nottingham Forest have won one of their last seven league matches against Preston (D4 L2).
Preston are looking to win consecutive league games against Nottingham Forest for the first time since April 1973.
Preston manager Alex Neil has won both of his Championship matches at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest, doing so in 2016-17 with Norwich and last season with Preston.
Preston's defeat to Birmingham last time out was their first in 10 Championship games (W4 D5) - they last lost consecutive games back in September (a run of four).
Since the start of last season, Nottingham Forest striker Lewis Grabban has scored more Championship goals than any other player (34).
52% of Preston's league goals this season have been scored via players from the Republic of Ireland (16/31).
Prutton's prediction
David Prutton predicts: 2-1 (8/1 with Sky Bet)
