Sports Blog 16/02/2015 – Preston North End vs Manchester United, Monday 16th February 2015

After a weekend with a few mild surprises, Preston North End have the chance to really create an upset as they host Manchester United in the 5th round of the FA Cup tonight at 7.45pm on BBC One.

With Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa all safely through, a lack of draws means that tonight’s game is the final piece of the 5th round jigsaw. Roy Hodgson is set to pluck the balls out of the bag and set the next round of fixtures ten minutes before tonight’s game, so their potential opponent will be known to both United and Preston ahead of kick off.

Preston North End are enjoying a decent run of form, winning their last 3 games on the trot and in a prime play-off spot at 4th in League One. They will be buoyed by the fact that their manager, Simon Grayson, has previous giant-killing form, seeing off Manchester United in the cup in 2010 when he led a then-League One Leeds to a 1-0 victory over United in the 3rd round. Former United youth Sylvan Ebanks-Blake joined Preston on a short term contract over Christmas, and is at 12/1 to score first against his old club. More importantly, Grayson will be looking to Preston’s star striker Joe Garner, who on 13 goals this season is at 17/2 to score first, alongside Paul Gallagher on 10 goals at 14/1 and Paul Huntington on 6 goals at 22/1.



Van Gaal has managed to turn around United’s season somewhat, and they are currently sitting in 3rd in the league. However, this position is rather flattering; they are 5 points behind 2nd place Manchester City, and a whopping 12 points off of leaders Chelsea. Absent in Europe, out of the League Cup and too far off the pace in the league, the FA Cup is van Gaal’s last chance at a debut piece of silverware. And the draw has, on paper, made it easy for United. Yet they struggled to a narrow win against Yeovil Town, and Cambridge United embarrassingly forced them to a replay.

However they are undefeated in their past 6 games, even if it has been against teams like Cambridge, Burnley, Leicester and QPR, and will go into tonight’s game confident of a win. They will likely be without Phil Jones and Daley Blind, both who suffered knocks against Burnley, and will definitely be without Michael Carrick, who is still out with a calf injury. Yet with van Persie (10 goals at 10/3 to score first), Wayne Rooney (8 goals, 9/2) and Falcao (4 goals, 15/4) at their disposal, their strike-force might be too much for the Lilywhites.

Preston will take solace in the fact that United have been drawing at half time in 9 of their past away matches, meaning the home side have a chance of pushing the Red Devils to the edge. Yet our clients cannot see past the might of Manchester, at a Manchester United/Preston (h) Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of 1.15-1.35, with a Total Goals spread of 2.65-2.85.