Cardiff City and Preston North End meet in an all-Championship encounter in the FA Cup third round on Sunday afternoon.
At a time when the Bluebirds sit four points above the relegation zone, North End have moved up to 14th position since the appointment of Ryan Lowe.
Match preview
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Lowe has had to bide his time before really getting his teeth stuck into his new position at Preston, the recently-appointed manager overseeing just two games since his arrival in the second week of December.
Nevertheless, the club's supporters can only be delighted with the impact that he has made since leaving Plymouth Argyle, North End posting victories over Barnsley and Stoke City respectively.
Preston were unfortunate to be trailing to a Ben Wilmot wonder goal in the latter of those matches, but they showed their character to claim a 2-1 triumph at the bet365 Stadium.
While much work is ahead for Lowe and his squad if they want to emerge as dark horses for promotion, possessing games in hand and momentum means that they cannot be written off at this stage.
Despite their improved run of results, Preston have now gone five matches without scoring a goal before the 57th minute, a trend which needs to end sooner rather than later.
Although they remain very much in trouble at the wrong end of the Championship table, Cardiff appear to be on a marginal-upward trajectory under Steve Morison.
Four matches have come and gone since their last success, but a comeback draw at Birmingham City and an hard-earned share of the spoils at West Bromwich Albion have kept things ticking over.
In total, Morison has collected 12 points from his 10 games, the 16th-best return over that period, and Cardiff will comfortably remain in the second tier if they continue to accumulate points at that rate.
Cardiff are on a four-match winning streak against their next opponents, the teams having met at Deepdale as recently as November 20 as Morison picked up his second win in charge.
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Team News
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Cardiff will be forced into at least two changes with Aden Flint serving a suspension and Ryan Giles having been recalled by Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Sean Morrison and Joel Bagan are likely to be brought into the team, but Kieffer Moore has tested positive for coronavirus and misses this game.
Having gone with a more defensively-minded midfield three against West Brom, Morison could hand a recall to Rubin Colwill.
Lowe must decide whether to try to build extra momentum with a winning team or hand opportunities to players who were only named on the substitutes' bench against Stoke.
The latter of those two options is more likely, with Ryan Ledson, Sean Maguire and Scott Sinclair among the players who should feature from the start.
Alistair McCann may replace Daniel Johnson, while Liam Lindsay should earn a chance in the back three.
Cardiff City possible starting lineup:
Phillips; McGuinness, Morrison, Nelson; Ng, Pack, Ralls, Bagan; Colwill; Harris, Collins
Preston North End possible starting lineup:
Iversen; Lindsay, Bauer, Hughes; Potts, Browne, Ledson, Earl; McCann; Maguire, Sinclair
We say: Cardiff City 1-2 Preston North End
Regardless of the teams selected by their respective managers, everything points to a competitive tie in South Wales. Although the Bluebirds will be desperate to get back to winning ways, we feel that North End could outlast their hosts, potentially prevailing in extra time.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Cardiff City win with a probability of 40.8%. A win for Preston North End had a probability of 32.62% and a draw had a probability of 26.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Cardiff City win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.63%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.6%) and 2-0 (7.24%). The likeliest Preston North End win was 0-1 (9.28%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.63%).
