West Brom v Preston: James Shan insists job situation won’t affect Alex Neil

Neil is the odds on favourite to be the next permanent head coach at The Hawthorns, with it understood the Baggies’ hierarchy are ready to make an approach for the 37-year-old.

In a strange twist of fate, PNE head to the Black Country tomorrow looking to get their play-off push back on track following three successive defeats.

But while speculation is mounting Neil could be in charge of Albion as early as next week, caretaker boss Shan believes that won’t be a distract the Scot heading into tomorrow’s game.

“I don’t think so,” Shan said when asked if Neil might find the speculation surrounding his future distracting.

“We are in a professional industry and you tackle one game at a time and have that focus.

“No doubt, Alex has done a good job there. They still have a shot themselves to jump into the play-offs.

“Alex, I’m sure, will do the best possible job he can for Preston North End.”

Albion look set to have Matty Phillips available for the Preston game with the winger back in training after recovering from an ankle tendon problem.

Gareth Barry is also on the mend after suffering with a sickness bug and soreness to his knee.

James Morrison is also set to return to training next week as he works his way back from a hamstring problem.

“Injury wise we are looking quite good,” Shan said. “Matty Phillips didn’t travel with the team (to Bristol) on Tuesday.

“But he stayed behind and trained with a small group that was not involved in the match day squad. He will train today and be in contention.

“On that front we seemingly have some of our big, experienced players back at a fantastic time for us.

“Mozza (Morrison) has been back out on the grass. Gareth had a sickness bug for a few days and has some soreness in and around his knee.

“Mozza was probably a seven-to-10 day grade one hamstring.

“I saw him on Monday and he will probably return to training the early part of next week.”

Three players who haven’t had a lot of playing time recently are Jacob Murphy, Jefferson Montero and Sam Field.

And Shan revealed he has left them out for tactical reasons.

“They are all fine,” he added. “It’s just team selection.

"Jefferson and Sam got some match minutes last week, for the 23s against Man United.

“Jefferson came through 45 minutes no problem at all. Sam came through the game with some good reports.

"At this moment in time it’s just down to utilising the squad and team selection.”

Likely line-up:

Subs: Bond, Bartley, Townsend, Mears, Harper, Murphy, Robson-Kanu.

Preston (4-1-4-1): Rudd; Fisher, Storey, Davies, Earl; Ledson; Nmecha, Browne, Gallagher, Robinson; Stockley.

The opposition: Alex Neil insists he has a job to do

Alex Neil may currently be in charge of Preston North End, but he could well be the man at the Albion helm come next week.

It is understood Neil is the man the Baggies have identified to oversee things as they aim to seal a play-off berth – and then a return to the top flight at the first time of asking.

But the Scot refused to speak about his future at yesterday’s press conference.

“I’m not going to talk about West Brom. I’m manager of Preston North End,” he added.

“People can talk as much as they want to talk.

“I’ve got a job to do here and we have a match to focus on.”

It is not a great surprise Albion are interested in Neil, who continues to do a fine job on a modest budget in Lancashire.

After just missing out on the play-offs last year, ending up seventh, they are 12th with five games left – eight points behind sixth-placed Bristol City, having played one more match.

They have lost their last three outings though, so if they plan on making a late push, with Neil or not, they need to beat the Baggies tomorrow.

“People will write us off because we’ve lost the last three games, but for us, we will go and try and win the next game and it if closes the gap then it’s game on. We will then focus on the next game and see where we go,” said Neil.

Winger Lukas Nmecha reckons Preston are still in the play-off frame.

“This is going to be the third of three really tough games in a week and we’ve obviously not done as well as we would have wanted to. We still believe in our squad and we want to get that win against West Brom,” said Nmecha.

“I do think we have some sort of chance still, we will just go out and try to win the last five games and see where it takes us.

“Hopefully, we can get the win and go from there.”

Nmecha started the loss to Leeds in midweek and could be in from the off again, but Ben Pearson will miss out after being sent off against the Whites.

“The red card came after a number of mistakes led to that situation occurring, but the criticism for Ben will come because of the accumulation of bookings and red cards. It is certainly an area that needs to be addressed,” admitted Neil.

Preston could have an experienced man coming back from injury in set-piece specialist Paul Gallagher, formerly of Blackburn and Leicester

But the game may come a bit too soon for Brad Potts.

“We felt it necessary to leave (Gallagher) out of the last game in the hope that he will be ready for this weekend,” said Neil.

“I’m not convinced Brad Potts will make it this weekend but I am very hopeful that Gally will.”

The boss says:

Preston will see us as a scalp. We are a big club, we retained a lot of players with Premier League quality. That has happened week-in, week-out.

Memory lane:

All five goals were scored in the first half the last time the sides met at The Hawthorns. Ben Watson, Chris Brunt and Graham Dorrans netted in a 3-2 Albion win.

Key man:

Dwight Gayle has scored in two of his last three games – he’ is now just a brace shy of the magic mark of 20 league goals for the season.

Danger man:

Alan Browne

Enjoying his best season since signing from Cork City five years ago. With 11 goals, he is Preston’s top scorer – one of those strikes coming in the reverse fixture at Deepdale, which Albion won 3-2 in September.

No goal in eight games though, which is his longest drought of the season.