Preston vs Watford prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2022-08-19 14:00.
Two of the Championship’s unbeaten sides put their records on the line at Deepdale as Preston host Watford. Preston Manager Ryan Lowe saluted “probably one of the best performances of his managerial reign’’ after his side’s 0-0 stalemate against an also-unbeaten Rotherham saw Preston become just the second team in history to open a Championship campaign with four-successive clean sheets!
Despite Preston only netting once this Championship campaign, they are now six-straight league games unbeaten (W3, D3) and have never lost a home game against Watford on a Saturday (W4, D2). North End will hope that this mini-scoring drought ends soon and won’t lead to more draws, as despite only two teams losing fewer games at home than Preston last season (four), they picked up the most home stalemates in the league (ten)!
Watford have made a solid start in their bid to make an instant return to the Premier league (W2, D2), most recently picking up a 1-1 draw against Birmingham. There is a buzz around Vicarage Road at the moment, and they can take heart from some recent history of winning away on matchday five in their previous two campaigns (Norwich: 3-1 and Derby: 1-0) in their search for three points here!
With a 100% start at Vicarage Road intact (W2), as many home triumphs as they managed in last year’s Premier League (PL) campaign, Watford will be keen to start chalking up points away from home. However, as one of the PL’s worst travelling sides last season, and after just one win in their last six away Championship outings (D3, L2), Watford’s travelling form could present a problem here.
Key battle: Preston’s newly-signed goalkeeper Freddie Woodman is yet to concede a league goal for his side but has seen Watford net every time he has faced them (W1, L2). He’ll look to thwart Watford’s João Pedro, who has scored two of Watford’s last six league goals and also netted in the last H2H here.
Hot stat: Watford triumphed 1-0 in the previous H2H – their only away victory over Preston this century (D4, L7)!