Bristol City v Preston

Bristol City vs Preston Preview

Bristol City's new Championship campaign starts with this upcoming home game against Preston NE at Ashton Gate with The Robins looking to at least improve upon last season's disappointing 14th place finish and achieve a top half finish this time around.

Inconsistency plagued Bristol City's season last term and this is underlined by the fact that the west country outfit managed to pick up just three wins out of their last 10 matches of last season, two of which were actually achieved on their travels with wins at Stoke City and QPR, the latter being on the last day of the season.

If The Robins are to achieve a top half finish this season then the hosts will need to make their Ashton Gate ground a veritable fortress and to be fair, this is something that they did improve upon towards the end of last season as Nigel Pearson's side suffered just the one defeat in their final 10 home games.

That one defeat was to promoted Burnley, while Bristol City also picked up five wins during this period which included victories over Birmingham City, Norwich City, Hull City, Blackpool and Rotherham United.

Preston NE finished last season in a comfortable mid-table position of 12th in the Championship table but although The Lilywhites put together a promising run of just one defeat in a preceding sequence of 11 games in the English second tier, the Lancashire club ended their season in dismal fashion.

The visitors failed to win any of their final five games of last term which included being handed four defeats in the process by way of losses incurred against the likes of Millwall, Swansea City, Sheffield United and Sunderland, while three of these four defeats were inflicted upon Preston on their travels.

For a side that had previously accumulated 10 away wins on the road, Preston just about limped home on the road as the visitors recorded just two further wins in their final nine games on their travels and along with five defeats within this period, Preston also failed to score in five of these 10 games as well.

Preston ended their season on the road with three defeats on the trot, losing at Millwall, Swansea City and Sheffield United, the latter two defeats seeing them concede four goals in each game.

Bristol City v Preston NE Verdict

Bristol City have held the upper hand over Preston NE in previous exchanges in recent times as The Robins are unbeaten in their last five meetings against the visitors and having won three of these encounters, Nigel Pearson's side look the more likely to capture an opening win of the season here.

Therefore, our main bet will be Bristol City win @ 2.00

Other side bets worth considering:

Bristol City win & Under 2.5 goals @ 4.00

Correct score: Bristol City 1-0 @ 6.50