Middlesbrough vs Preston prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-03-17 15:00.
Middlesbrough’s mighty charge towards the automatic promotion places stumbled in midweek with a 1-1 draw at home to Stoke. Boss Michael Carrick highlighted his frustration that the seven-game winning run at home in the league ended but stated that it “could be a big point come the end of the season”. With nine games and 27 points left to play for, it would be foolish to write Boro off just yet.
That’s because Boro are yet to endure a two-match winless streak in all competitions under Carrick, responding to each failure with a win on six occasions. In fact, four of the six victories in the aforementioned sequence saw Boro score at least three goals, with their most recent being their largest ever win in the Championship (5-0 vs Reading).
Preston have been a thorn in Boro’s side of late and could be the team to halt that progress. Ryan Lowe’s men still have some ground to make up on the top-six but a current seven-game unbeaten run (W3, D4) hasn’t harmed that lofty ambition, yet Lowe remained coy on his side’s promotion prospects in the wake of their latest 2-1 win at Rotherham.
His outlook may improve yet further if Preston can notch a fifth win in six H2Hs (W4, L1) against Boro, and the home faithful won’t have forgotten the final day of last season when a Preston win cruelly ended their slim promotion hopes. The absence of Emil Riis will be a blow however, as he has contributed to six of their last 11 goals against Boro (G5, A1).
Players to watch: Boro’s top-scoring Championship player Chuba Akpom (G23) earned another feather in his cap last time out as he scored the 1000th goal here at the Riverside Stadium since its doors opened in 1995. Preston’s top league scorer is some way off Akpom, yet Ched Evans (G9) could be on for his second run of three straight scoring games this season with a goal here.
Hot stat: Preston have the best unbeaten rate as pre-match outsiders in the Championship (W10, D6, L5) amongst teams that have entered 3+ games as such.