With Preston travelling to the North East full of confidence, they will relish the opportunity to further derail Middlesbrough's automatic promotion bid. However, the home side's extra quality in attack may prove key, and we expect Carrick's side to come through in an entertaining fixture.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Middlesbrough win with a probability of 62.42%. A draw had a probability of 22% and a win for Preston North End had a probability of 15.57%.
The most likely scoreline for a Middlesbrough win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.03%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (12.1%) and 2-1 (9.68%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.42%), while for a Preston North End win it was 0-1 (5.61%). The actual scoreline of 4-0 was predicted with a 3.5% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Middlesbrough would win this match.