Barrow head into Preston North End friendly this weekend on back of 8-1 win

Preston North End are back in pre-season friendly action away at League Two side Barrow this weekend. The Lilywhites head to Holker Street on Saturday as they look to build up the fitness levels of their players.

Their opponents have won both of their friendlies so far this summer against FC United of Manchester and Holker Old Boys. They beat the latter 8-1 on Wednesday night so head into their clash against Ryan Lowe’s side in confident mood.

Speaking after their latest victory, their boss Pete Wild said, as per their club Twitter account: “The best thing to come out of tonight is that everybody gets a run around. Both teams got some more fitness in their legs and got some more sharpness.

“In terms of us on the football pitch, we started quite slow. When we got the goal we seemed to settle down a bit. The real turning point was when Holker scored.”

Midfielder Dean Campbell has joined Barrow this summer from Aberdeen and he scored a hat-trick in their latest clash. The Scotsman spent last term on loan at Stevenage and scored the winner for them away at Aston Villa in the FA Cup earlier this year.

The Bluebirds have signed former Preston striker Jamie Proctor following his departure from Port Vale and he is in line to face his former club. He was on the books at Deepdale as a youngster and rose up through the youth ranks of the Lancashire outfit before going on to make 40 first-team appearances, chipping in with four goals.

Barrow have also signed David Worrall, Courtney Duffus, Junior Tiensia, Kian Spence, Mazeed Ogungbo and Emile Acquah. The latter is their most recent arrival from Maidenhead United earlier this week.

Preston’s game against the Cumbrian side is an opportunity for new signings Mads Frøkjær-Jensen and Duane Holmes to potentially get some minutes. Lowe’s men beat Bury 3-0 in their last outing.