Preston North End must deal with both Cameron Archer and Chuba Akpom as they travel to red-hot Middlesbrough

Boro have been in sparkling form ever since, well, they last played Preston. Michael Carrick’s first game in charge of the club came against PNE back in October and it ended in defeat for the fledgling boss, despite his side taking the lead.

But if you look at the league since that game at Deepdale, Middlesbrough have taken the most points out of any Championship side. Even if that defeat was included, only Burnley can better than and that is by just a single point.

Carrick took over a side 21st in the league having played 16 games and since then has transformed them into automatic promotion contenders. Had they beaten Stoke City in midweek they would have gone within a point of second at the time, although they only managed a 1-1 draw in the end.

Of course there was disappointment around having to share the spoils with Alex Neil but Carrick felt that illustrated just how far his side have come over the last few months.

He said: “It probably shows how well the boys have done and the position they've put themselves in that in some ways there's a touch of frustration but I'm not really that frustrated. I'm proud of the effort, it's just one of those days where we played against a good team and didn't quite have that spark or quality in the end."It's two teams, you can't flick a switch. The boys have been fantastic for four and a half, five months since I've been here. It's not a switch you can flick on and off. The boys are human. You have good days and bad days. That's not a bad day, I'm not saying it's a bad day, it's just managing the ups and downs and making the most of each game."We'll take the point, it could be a big point come the end of the season. It's a learning curve for us, to manage the emotions and the feeling within the stadium. When things are going well it's easy to enjoy, and when things are going a bit sticky we'll stick by it and play the way we play because that's what's given us success.“It's not the end of the world by any stretch, we'll look forward to the next game. It's just one of them things, we've come up against a good team, didn't quite hit our best. That's football."

Boro have some very potent threats in their side but none more so than Chuba Akpom. He, like the whole of Boro, has been a beneficiary of Carrick’s arrival, netting 20 times in 22 games since the former Manchester United captain took charge of the club. That run of form currently has him as the top scorer in the Championship going into Saturday’s game but there is a familiar face playing just in front of him in the 4-2-3-1 – Cameron Archer.

The Aston Villa loanee chose to move to the North East over a return to Deepdale and has hour goals and two assists so far from his 12 games at the Riverside. Keeping that deadly duo quiet will be the aim of the game for North End but they will be looking at their latest Premier League youngster to arrive on loan, Tom Cannon, to show up their former flame.