Southampton vs Preston Prediction: The Saints to continue pursuit of their rivals

After clinching an injury-time winner at Birmingham City on Saturday, Southampton are back in Championship action on Wednesday night (19:45) as they welcome Preston North End to St Mary's.

The Saints are five points off the pace in the race for automatic promotion and they will be needing as many wins as possible in the coming weeks. Preston are three points outside the play-off places and a victory here could take them a huge step closer to making a top-six finish happen. Below we lay out our predictions for the match.

Match Odds

Southampton are the 2/5 favourites in this contest. A draw can be backed at 18/5, while Preston are 13/2 to pick up a huge three points of their own.

Both teams to score is priced at 4/5 and over 2.5 goals is 4/7.

Team News

The Saints are missing Ross Stewart, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ryan Fraser and Juan Larios due to injury. Joe Aribo netted the winning goal in their dramatic 4-3 win over Birmingham last time out, and he will be pushing for a start on Wednesday night on the south coast.

If that is the case, then the Nigerian could come in for Will Smallbone, who took his fair share of knocks and bruises against the Blues.

As for Preston, Kian Best and Brad Potts are also unavailable for this clash. This will likely see Alan Browne continue his role as a makeshift wing-back.

Southampton and both teams to score @ 15/8

Southampton certainly left it late to beat 10-man Birmingham but some of the football on display from them was outstanding. It is undeniable that they are one of the best sides in the division and if they continue to play like that, they have a real chance of claiming an automatic promotion spot.

They have plenty of quality in the final third which was shown at the weekend as Adam Armstrong, David Brooks, Che Adams and Aribo all scored. They have more than enough firepower to blow away Preston if they wanted, they just need to impose themselves early.

That is something the Lilywhites will try and stop from happening as they look to keep their own unbeaten run going in the hunt for the play-offs. Ryan Lowe has had plenty of critics among the Lancashire fan base over the last two years but they cannot really argue with the position he has them in right now.

They've been scoring goals and forward Will Keane leads the way by quite some distance with 12 in the league, but they can also depend on the likes of Emil Riis Jakobsen, Liam Millar and Mads Frokjaer-Jensen to share the burden as well.

Preston head to Southampton in confidence and we do believe that they will get on the scoresheet, but the Saints' quality should shine through here.

Adam Armstrong to score anytime @ 11/10

The Saints' leading marksman Armstrong took his league tally for the season up to 17 over the weekend and remains just two goals behind Blackburn Rovers' Sammie Szmodics. With the form that he is in, he has an excellent shot of taking this year's Golden Boot, and with the quality of talent around him, they can make that happen.

He may only have two goals in his last five appearances but with the way the Saints play, he will never be short of chances. When you also factor in the ground they have to make up on their promotion rivals, Saints boss Russell Martin will be demanding more from his star striker in the final weeks of the campaign, and given his talent, he will most likely deliver.