When their sides finished 20th and 21st, only avoiding relegation on the final day of last season, Preston and Hull City fans might not have believed you if you told them they would be playing a huge game in the promotion race less than nine months later.

Despite an injury crisis at the MKM Stadium, the Tigers have slunk into the top-five, sitting only five points outside the automatic promotion spots, with a game in hand on second-placed Middlesbrough.

Boss Sergej Jakirovic didn’t know which 11 players he could field just 24 hours before Saturday’s eye-opening 2-1 win at Southampton, but they still collected a fourth win in five unbeaten games on the road, and will seek to make that six at Deepdale (19:45 GMT).

What was once one of the trickiest away games on the calendar looks far less so of late as the Lilywhites have won just one of their past six home games, that against basement-boys Sheffield Wednesday, and they have suffered rather tame 1-0 defeats against League One Wigan in the FA Cup and Derby on the past two Saturdays.

North End start the day sixth, a point behind Hull, and with the chance to return to the top four for the fifth time this season with a win, but to do so they might well need to do something they have not done since Bonfire Night, score more than once in a home game.