Whitehill's title charge is creaking amid player crisis

The Rosewell club are the only team that can overtake the current leaders Spartans, who they trail by an incredible 25 points although they do have nine games in hand over their fiercest rivals.

However, after losing 2-0 to Spartans in a King Cup tie on Saturday, Whitehill's injury, suspension and unavailability list means that eight players are likely to miss out tonight. Andrew Kidd and Kevin Morrison are definitely out injured along with goalkeeper Youssef Bejaoui and defender Kevin Lee, who are on holiday. Allan Cornett was sent off against Spartans at the weekend and is suspended while captain Ross Johnston is extremely doubtful along with Daryl Devlin and Darren McGlashan who also picked up knocks.

"I have never been in such a predicament before," lamented the Whitehill manager, Gary Aitchison. "It is a testing time for us as we are now coming off the back of two consecutive defeats. However, we have a squad of 19 players and those who come in tonight are all very good players.

"We face Preston Athletic who are meeting us on the back of a great win against Vale of Leithen. In their line-up they will have Kevin Haynes and Bobby Gay, two of our former players, who no doubt will be out to prove something."

Whitehill will have former Spartans U-19 goalkeeper Scott Haldane in their team while Paul Lynch, the son of Spartans joint manager Sam Lynch, may also start alongside Banji Koya in attack.

Preston Athletic currently occupy third bottom spot in the Premier Division although they are safe from relegation. Tonight's game kicks off at 7.30pm.

Stevie Myatt, the Preston manager, said: "I was pleased with result against Vale and now we want to pick up as many points as possible from our last four games."