Football
Exclusive: Preston’s Will Keane eager to disrupt Leicester’s promotion plans ahead of Championship clash
Will Preston be the disruptor to deny Leicester winning the league?
Image Credit:s Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images
Meddling with the top team’s promotion plans
Hitman Will Keane is confident Preston can spoil table-topping Leicester’s title-winning ambitions.
The Foxes have been flying high at the Championship summit for much of this season.
But Keane, who has bagged 13 goals this season, knows if the Lilywhites can cause an upset at Deepdale on Monday, then title rivals Leeds United and Ipswich Town could still leapfrog them for the greatest prize of all.
The Lilywhites saw their own promotion chase frustratingly fall by the wayside after three successive defeats ended their quest to earn a coveted play-off place.
But former Manchester United striker Keane, 31, wants to finish the season on a high.
“These are the games at the start of the season you look forward to,” Keane told SportsBoom.
“We would have still liked to have been in the hunt and playing for a little bit more, but it’s still a massively important game for us.
“We’re fully focused on trying to put in a strong performance and to finish the season as strong as possible.
We don’t want the season to just fizzle out and come to an end with a run of defeats.
Will Keane
“We’re confident if we perform like we know we can do, we can finish the season strongly.
“We’ve made good progress this season, there’s plenty of positives but also plenty of things to improve on.
“But we’ve still got two games left and we want to perform against Leicester.
“They’ve had an outstanding season, they’ve got lots of quality and we’re aware of all the threats they pose.
“But we look at ourselves and we also have plenty to offer – and plenty of threats.”
Image Credit:s Andrew Kearns - CameraSport via Getty Images
Preston boss chimes in
A view shared by Preston boss Ryan Lowe who, despite missing out on the play-offs, has challenged his team to rise to the occasion against the league leaders.
“This group have shown what they can do against the top teams in this league, especially at Deepdale,” said Lowe.
“They’re [Leicester] wanting to win the league, let alone wanting to get promoted.
“We know it’s a difficult game, but these are the games we want to play in.”
Leicester manager focused on the “job”
The Foxes thumped the Lilywhites 3-0 when they met earlier in the season, but the visitors won’t be taking anything for granted in their penultimate game of the season with the league title within their grasp.
And manager Enzo Maresca reflected: “We need one more win to finish our job.
“Hopefully it can be the next one. Now it’s just a matter of trying to win one of the two games that we have and to get promoted. That is what we need in this moment.”
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Neil has been a journalist for longer than he'd care to remember, having written for national newspapers and respected publications for over 25 years. For the last three years he has worked freelance for BBC Sport, working on the production desk as a sub-editor and also as a writer, covering a whole range of sports.