Nottingham Forest have been in much-improved form as of late, with new boss Steve Cooper taking them up to 17th place since his arrival. 

Two wins, two draws and one loss in their last five games culminated in a 1-1 draw against Sheffield United last time out.

Preston North End have won their previous two matches, with a huge away victory at Bournemouth on Wednesday ending the Cherries' unbeaten start to the season.

Frankie McAvoy's men have won three, drawn one and lost one of their last five games, and sit two points ahead of Forest in 15th place.

  • Team news

Nottingham Forest

Max Lowe will be back in contention for the hosts, after missing the visit of Sheffield United due to being ineligible against his parent club.

Jordi Osei-Tutu (hamstring), Loic Mbe Soh (thigh) and Rodrigo Ely (ankle) all remain sidelined.

The Reds have no new injury concerns from their midweek game.

Preston North End

Second-choice goalkeeper Declan Rudd will be assessed before the trip, after pulling out of the warm-up before the Bournemouth game with a jarred knee.

Matthew Olosunde (hamstring) and Ched Evans (plantar fasciitis) are not yet fit, but should be back soon after the international break.

Josh Murphy (ankle) and Izzy Brown (achilles) remain long-term absentees for the Lilywhites.

  • Predicted lineups

Nottingham Forest (3-4-3)

Samba; Worrall, Figueiredo, McKenna; Spence, Yates, Colback, Lowe; Zinckernagel, Grabban, Johnson.

Preston North End (3-5-2)

Iversen; Van den Berg, Bauer, Hughes; Barkhuizen, McCann, Whiteman, Browne, Earl; Maguire, Jakobsen.

  • Ones to watch

Lewis Grabban

Championship fans need no introduction to 33-year-old Grabban, with the Englishman scoring 68 goals in the second tier since the start of the 2017/18 season. Initially starting out at Crystal Palace, he has had his most notable spells at Norwich City and Bournemouth.

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A strong, explosive frontman, he has already fired six home so far this season, with his most recent coming late on to equalise against Sheffield United. New boss Cooper has given him the responsibility of the captain's armband, and Grabban looks to have taken it in his stride as he completes his fourth campaign in the East Midlands.

Ali McCann

Previously at St Johnstone, McCann was highly regarded in Perthshire after breaking through in 2018 and playing close to 100 games in Scottish football before he joined the Lilywhites in the summer for an undisclosed fee.

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The 21-year-old is already a fully-fledged Northern Ireland international, and shone in St Johnstone's Europa League qualifier against Galatasaray in August. The central midfielder has made just three league starts for Preston so far, but did score the all-important winner at Bournemouth in midweek.

  • Previous meetings

Last season, this fixture was won by the visitors with goals from Tom Bayliss and Liam Lindsay securing a 2-1 win.

The game at Deepdale was also won by the away side, with a Grabban penalty sealing a 1-0 victory.

That was Forest's only win in their last 10 league matches against Preston (D6, L3).

None of the last 10 league meetings between the teams have been won by the home side (D6, L4) since a 1-0 home win for the Reds in March 2016.

  • How to watch

The game kicks off at 15:00 GMT on Saturday November 6.

Fans in the UK will not be able to watch the game due to the 3pm blackout, although those overseas can check out the respective club websites for live stream information.