Barnsley travel to Deepdale for Saturday’s game against a Preston side buoyed by the appointment of new manager Ryan Lowe. 

The Tykes head into the game on the back of a five match winless run, however, the club’s form has improved slightly over the past two games with draws away at Peterborough and at home to Huddersfield.

Carlton Morris scored the first goal of newly-appointed Poya Asbaghi’s reign during the game at Oakwell and the Iranian manager will be looking for his side to build on this against Preston. 

Barnsley remain 23rd in the Sky Bet Championship with only administration hit Derby below them.

Aapo Halme is the only injury doubt for the away side. 

Ahead of the game, Asbaghi said: “I’ve seen good foundations, a solid structure. That’s normally where you need to start. It gives the players confidence, they trust upon that solid organisation. 

“It will be a challenging fixture for us, they all are. This is a high quality division. But we are feeling good, we have a strong belief in everything that we are doing.

Goalkeeper, Brad Collins praised the side’s defensive improvement: “We certainly look more solid as a collective, as a unit, we’re not conceding as many goals so it’s been a good start from that point of view. 

“But it’s about taking it game by game. There are so many games left to play, a lot of points to play for and the confidence is growing day by day.”

Ryan Lowe will take charge of Preston for the first time. The Lilywhites are currently 18th in the second tier with Ched Evans, Andre Hughes and Sepp Van der Berg likely to miss the match through injury.