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The Championship is nearly upon us and what a set of fixtures to kick things off. Wolves will kick off their promotion on Friday night, as they take on Blackburn Rovers whose season could go one of two extreme ways. A Lancashire derby at 12:30 will also take place as Preston North End travel to Horwich to face Bolton Wanderers. The Toughsheets Community Stadium will host the 12:30 kick off on Saturday, providing a tasty affair to start the season. Paul Heckingbottom’s side have a lot pressure on them going into this clash, with the Lancashire club being eyed as one of the favourites to be relegated this season, according to OddsChecker. Lack of squad depth and quality within in has many concerned about the capabilities this season, with some writing this season off altogether. But what’s football without a bit of hope? Granted, Preston have to recruit and quickly, with the moves for Tyreece Campbell and Stanley Mills drawing on to the point that they might just not happen. A positive from last weekend was the new latest recruits linking up to save North End against Huddersfield, with Erabi scoring the equaliser from Burgzorg’s assist. Both subsequently bagged penalties in the shootout, lifting PNE into the second round of the Carabao Cup where they’ll face Everton at home, at Deepdale this time. Bolton started their season with a loss to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, with Jamal Lowe scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win for ‘The Owls.’ We’ve Met Before Wanderers secured victories against their Lancashire counterparts in the last two matches, albeit friendlies. They beat Preston 2-0 at the Toughsheets Stadium last summer, and 1-0 before that at Deepdale in July 2021. You’ll have to go back to February 2019 to find the last competitive meeting between the two, which resulted in a 2-1 away win for Preston North End – courtesy of Alan Browne and Tom Barkhuizen. Clayton Donaldson was Bolton’s scorer on the day, scoring in added time. The last five meetings have seen three draws, including the entertaining 2-2 draw at Deepdale in September 2018 that saw Alan Browne’s audacious volley, and two wins for PNE. March 2018 was the other victory, where PNE came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1, thanks to Sean Maguire’s brace from the bench. Tom Barkhuizen cancelled out Mark Beevers first-half opener, thanks to a brilliant run in-behind and slotted finish into the bottom right corner. Maguire returned to the pitch after months away with an injury and delivered one of the most iconic Gentry Day performances in recent history. The first meeting between these two goes all the way back to September 1888, the founding season of the English Football League. Like in 2018, it was a 3-1 win for Preston North End, who would go on to win the inaugural first division league title, infamously unbeaten. Also secured the double by winning the F.A. Cup without conceding. That fixture also makes it one of the oldest in English Football. The head-to-head record reads as this: Preston North End 55, Bolton Wanderers 51, and 40 draws. The Key Players Both sides possess some key players that will prove crucial come Saturday lunchtime. With reports that Portugese midfielder Ruben Rodrigues may be ruled out with an injury, that is one less danger man to worry about for North End. However, are still some others to be concerned about should they find their rhythm. Ryan Hardie Only signing for Wanderers on Tuesday, the striker will spend the season on loan from Wrexham. After failing to secure game time at the Welsh club, the former Plymouth man had to go to Huddersfield in search of minutes. Playing only six games in Yorkshire, the 29-year old scored twice before being rules out by injury from March onwards. Hardie has always been relatively consistent in his goal tally, trying double digits for goals in both his seasons in the Championship for Argyle. His first and only goal for Wrexham just so happened to come against North End too, where he displayed one of the many finishes in his locker with a fine curled effort. He works hard off-the-ball, making himself a nightmare to defend against make awkward runs for the defenders to catch them out of position. If he’s given a clear cut chance, then there’s a great chance he won’t regret it. Sam Dalby If one striker wasn’t enough to worry about, then Sam Dalby might have some PNE defenders scared. 11 goals and five assists last season for the English striker, with the ability to also make an impact from the bench. He’s a vastly different profile to Hardy, with the 26-year old more akin to a physical target man than an out and out poacher. 150 aerial duels won last season, 202 duels won, 26 tackles, and won possession 17 times in the final third, Dalby will make himself a nuisance. With North End lacking a commanding aerial presence in defence, Bolton could relish the opportunity to utilise the powerful forward on Saturday. Ben Davies The former Preston man faces against the club he made his name. As a ball-playing defender, he’ll be critical to Bolton in the build-up, using his composure and left-foot to bring balance and a calmness to the back line. He excelled for Birmingham in League One, proving there’s still plenty of ability in him still and in a team like Bolton that will concede many chances, he’ll be expected to help plug the gaps. The 30-year old excels when paired with a towering aerial beast in a back two, Patrick Bauer or Paul Huntington at Preston for example, and now that’s Christy Fiorini-Joseph – who won 74.1% of his aerial duels last season.  Davies might be targeted for long balls and aerial chances, with Erabi most likely going to be favoured to try and overpower him. If he rolls back the days, then the Preston attackers are going to struggle getting a good enough chance on goal at the weekend. XI Prediction Bolton Wanderers (4-3-3): Jack Bonham, Luca Stephenson, Chris Fiorini-Joseph, Ben Davies, Akim Femewo, Xavier Simons, Josh Sheehan, Gaizka Larrazabal, John McAtee, Sam Dalby Preston North End (3-4-2-1): Daniel Iversen, Odeluga Offiah, Jordan Storey, Andrew Hughes, Pol Valentin, Jordan Thompson, Ali McCann, Andrija Vukcevic, Alfie Devine, Callum Lang, Jusef Erabi PREDICTION: Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Preston North End This is going to be an insanely close match and one worthy of an opening day bout. A great advertisement of what is to come from the next 9 months of Championship football, with drama and gritted performances. Preston desperately need a win to calm the nerves surrounding the club at the moment, but you can imagine they will still be there if the club doesn’t recruit sufficiently. Bolton have a really good chance to make a great first impression on the league upon their return, after six years away from the Championship. This fixture has produced some great matches over the years, hopefully this is one of them.