Whenever West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End meet there is quite a lot to unpack.
This is, after all, a fixture which goes back to the very first EFL season in 1888-89 with two FA Cup meetings in the years preceding, including a final which is one of two won by the Baggies against the Lancastrians.
Oh, it’s also seventh against fourth if we wind forward to the present day.
For the record, this will be the 123rd time these two have met with Albion holding the advantage, 53 victories to Preston’s 41, but Paul Heckingbottom’s side will rock up to The Hawthorns as the Championship’s surprise package so far.
A final-day relegation scrap last term hardly had Deepdale fans skipping into this campaign, even less so when last season’s second-top scorer Emil Riis left for Bristol City and the squad was overhauled.
But, here they are in fourth place, beaten only once and with notable wins over Leicester and Ipswich.
“I’m pleased with our levels of performance – we’re hitting levels of consistency and no matter who’s put in front of us we can give them a game,” said Heckingbottom.
The Preston boss has been there and done it but in the opposite technical area will be Ryan Mason, a man still relatively new to the management lark and possibly facing his first real test.
An unbeaten start with 10 points from his opening four games has been followed by four points from the subsequent five, culminating in a 3-0 loss at Millwall.
“We’re only three months into something, that’s probably our worst performance of the season and we need to try to avoid it again,” Mason told BBC Radio WM.
