Key events
Teams in full
Preston (probable 3-4-2-1) Woodman; Hughes, Lindsay, Whatmough; Potts, Whiteman, Thordarson, Brady; Greenwood, Keane: Riis.
Subs: Cornell, Best, Theo Mawene, Kesler-Hayden, Osmajic, Holmes, Ledson, Storey, Frokjaer-Jensen.
Sheffield United (probable 4-2-3-1) Adam Davies; Gilchrist, Robinson, Ahmedhodzic, Burrows; Souza, Arblaster; O’Hare, Hamer, Brooks; Moore.
Subs: Grbic, Peck, Seriki, Marsh, Ben Slimane, Trusty, Souttar, Brewster, Coulibaly.
Referee: Robert Madley.
Teams in brief: Sheffield United
Chris Wilder pulls out a shiny new pair of full-backs. On the right: Alfie Gilchrist, just signed on loan from Chelsea, with 11 Premier League appearances in his back pocket. On the left: Harrison Burrows, bought from Peterborough. He hasn’t played in the Prem, but he has scored twice at Wembley – in the same game.
Teams in brief: Preston
When you’ve only purchased one player, you’d probably better play him. Stefan Teitur Thordarson, born in Iceland, bought from Denmark, makes his debut tonight in the Preston midfield.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to … the new football season. It’s 2024-25, which has a ring to it, don’t you think? Let’s hope it’s as hard to predict as 1974-75, when Everton slipped on a series of banana skins, Liverpool stumbled, Derby squeezed past them both to win the league, and the second-division champions were Manchester United, hotly pursued by Aston Villa.
Back then Sheffield United were the sixth-best team in the land. Now they’re not just back in the second tier, they’re bottom of it. They start the season on minus two points after being penalised for defaulting on payments last time they found themselves at this level. So the good news is the only way is up. If they win at Preston tonight, and Derby manage a draw at Blackburn, United will go all the way from the bottom to the top (on goal difference).
You know how football clubs these days fork out colossal sums for questionable assets? Well, these two clubs may be the last of the small spenders. According to Transfermarkt, Preston have forked out just £710,000 over the summer. They blew the lot on Stefan Teitur Thordarson, a regular in central midfield for Iceland.
As the manager at Deepdale, Ryan Lowe has been unspectacular but steady, steering this grand old club to 13th, 12th and 10th in the Championship, to make it nine successive years of frustrating respectability – always in the top 13, never making the play-off places. After two years and eight months in charge, Lowe is now the second-longest-serving boss in the division, behind Mark Robins of Coventry. But he may not be sitting all that comfortably after finishing last season with five defeats.
At Bramall Lane Chris Wilder knows how to win promotion from this tier, but has had his hands tied with Sheffield United up for sale. He has let 16 players go, including some great servants such as Oli McBurnie and Oliver Norwood, and has brought in six others at a cost of £4.5m.
Two-thirds of that went on a bright young left-back from Peterborough, Harrison Burrows, and the rest on a senior citizen from Bournemouth, Kieffer Moore, who looks a shrewd buy as he’s just helped Ipswich go up to the Premier League. But, after receiving a parachute payment that is believed to be £43m, Sheffield United are either saving up for a rainy day or planning a late swoop for Raheem Sterling.
Kick-off in both games is at 8pm (UK time). I’ll be live-blogging the one and keeping an eye on the other. Back soon with the teams – in the meantime, do settle down with Louise Taylor’s expert guide to the Championship.