Sky Sports pundit David Prutton expects Leeds United vs Preston North End to be a battle on Boxing Day, and backs the two Championship sides to share the spoils.
Alex Neil’s Preston travel to Elland Road for the festive encounter fifth in the league table, but only hold a narrow one-point advantage over seventh-placed Swansea City, whereas Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites are sitting in second, eight points clear of the Play-Off places despite losing to Fulham last time out.
Losing at Craven Cottage snapped an 11-game unbeaten streak for the club, which had already begun to crumble the week before when we were forced to settle for a draw at home to Cardiff City despite leading 3-0 after 52 minutes.
Recent results aside, Prutton is adamant that our automatic-promotion place is something that supporters would have accepted in the summer after losing in the Play-Off Semi-Finals to Derby County, though it will only take another disappointing result to see our position become unsteady.
What will the result be vs Preston on Boxing Day?
Whites win
Draw
Preston win
“Leeds have drawn and lost their last two games, but any fan of the club would have bitten your hand off to be nine-points clear [of fourth place] on Boxing Day,” Prutton noted in his column for Sky Sports.
“If Preston win this one, they could be right back in the battle for an automatic promotion spot. It will be a battle and I think they could leave Elland Road with a point.”
Preston travel to Elland Road on Boxing Day unbeaten in three league games, having snapped their four-game losing streak with a win at home to Fulham on December 10 after losing to Derby, Hull, West Brom and QPR.
They could not make it three wins on the bounce last weekend, though, as Neil’s men could only draw 0-0 at Cardiff having produced just three shots on target from 16 efforts with ten strikes going wide.
A want of accuracy somewhat paved the way for our loss at Fulham, too, as we fashioned seven on-target shots from 15 attempts, but could still have taken a draw had it not been for the contentious penalty decision.
In other Leeds United news, a second club have entered the race to land a 5 ft 6 Whites man in January.