Five-a-side: Best of both! Preston North End

On Tuesday night, Birmingham City will welcome their third opponent to St.Andrews in the space of a week as they go in search of their first home win since the 3rd of March.

Saturday saw Blues narrowly lose once again as clinical Burnley just edged out the tie 2-1, whilst Tuesdays visitors Preston North End had to settle for a draw against relegation threatened MK Dons.

Despite the loss on Saturday, Blues fans were able to take some pleasure from the game as local rivals Aston Villa confirmed their relegation into the Sky Bet Championship as teenage hot-shot Marcus Rashford netted in Manchester United’s 1-0 win over the pathetic excuse for a club.

Moving on from our annoying neighbours, Preston have been one of the surprise packages this season in the Championship and if they win on Tuesday night they would move themselves above Gary Rowett’s side by a point as they look to end the season strongly.

Although they haven’t got the biggest budget in the league, they have competed well this season and it looks set to be yet another tough clash for Blues to deal with.

The Lilywhites have some good players in their ranks and choosing this weeks five-a-side team was more difficult than I thought it was going to be actually but down below are the players that I have selected for this weeks side…

GK: Tomasz Kuszczak.

People will start to get fed up of the fact that I keep choosing the big Pol for the goalkeepers spot but the fact of the matter is is that he is better than Adam Legzdins and he is certainly better than Anders Lindegaard.

Kuszczak has kept an impressive amount of clean sheets this season and although he has been dropped for the last few games, I still can’t shy away from the fact that he has been an excellent addition to our team this season and that is why he is in my team this week.

DF: Jonathan Grounds.

Grounds has really improved himself once again this season and I personally think that is because he hasn’t really got any competition in that left back slot so what’s to stop him from progressing.

His form of late has been above average and his ability to play with the ball on the floor as well as challenge for things in the air is something that I think we have been missing for quite a while.

In previous weeks I have noticed that Grounds has been trying to beat his man a few more times and it is really encouraging to see us have to attacking full backs on the pitch who can also defend well as well so for that reason he deserves a place in this weeks five-a-side team.

MF: Paul Gallagher and Daniel Johnson.

When we played Preston earlier in the season I highlighted Johnson as somebody who could cause us damage and although he didn’t do much against us on the day back in August, he has really progressed this season.

To date, Johnson has eight goals to his name which makes him Preston’s top goal scorer in the division and I think having somebody who can score that amount of goals from midfield is always important and because of his achievements this season, I wanted to put him in this weeks team.

Next to him I have put his team mate Gallagher who is also challenging him for the clubs golden boot award. He may be three away from his North End counterpart but with five goals to his name, the 31-year-old has played a vital part in the Lilywhites success this season.

Bringing a little bit of experience to the side for this week, I think Gallagher is the perfect partner for Johnson and I think that any side in the division will be looking at these two in the summer as clubs are always on the look out for goal scoring midfielders.

ST: Clayton Donaldson.

Over the course of this month, Donaldson has been moved a round a lot in the team by Rowett and he hasn’t moaned, although many of us fans have. He has picked himself up and gone at every game like he usually does.

His performances against Reading and Leeds United were some of the best I have seen since he has come back from his injury that he sustained while he was away on international duty and it is refreshing to see.

The Jamaican forward is now just one goal away from his tenth of the season and if he plays like he has been in recent weeks on Tuesday night then hopefully he will be able to tick his double figure target off once again.

Blues and Preston fans, do you agree with this weeks five-a-side team? Will Clayton Donaldson net his tenth goal of the season on Tuesday night? Let us know in the comment section down below!