Match report
Wrexham beat Preston 4-1 at the Racecourse Ground
Wrexham won 4-1 against Preston in a Championship Matchday 11 fixture at the Racecourse Ground, producing five goals in total. The hosts, who had lost their previous league game 2-1 at home to West Brom, moved from 19th to 14th in the table, while Preston stayed 24th.
AI-assisted match report written from official match data.
Joseph Worrall opened the scoring in the 31st minute, converting from a Daniel Edward Peter Imray assist. Preston levelled five minutes later through Alfie Devine in the 36th minute, but Benjamin Whiteman restored Wrexham's lead in the 42nd minute and the hosts went into the break 2-1 ahead.
The second half belonged to Wrexham. Samuel Smith made it 3-1 in the 59th minute from a Whiteman assist, and four minutes later Kieffer Moore struck from a Worrall pass in the 63rd minute to make it 4-1. Preston had no reply and have now lost three games in a row.
Preston are now without a win in six games and sit ten points behind Wrexham. Both sides play on Saturday 24 October: Wrexham are away to Blackburn in the Championship, while Preston host West Brom.
Benjamin Whiteman scored once and provided an assist for Smith's goal, earning a rating of 9.0 as the top performer.
Wrexham had six shots on target to Preston's one, a gap that reflected how little Preston threatened in attack.
Wrexham beat Preston 4–1 (half-time 2–1).
Wrexham met Preston in the Championship (Regular Season - 11). Kick-off was Saturday, 17 October 2026, 14:00 UTC at Racecourse Ground. Referee: Simon Hooper.
Team pages: Wrexham · Preston · Championship
Key moments
- 31' Goal: Joe Worrall (assist: Danny Imray) — 1–0 · Watch Joe Worrall's goal video (31')
- 36' Goal: Alfie Devine — 1–1 · Watch Alfie Devine's goal video (36')
- 42' Goal: Ben Whiteman — 2–1 · Watch Ben Whiteman's goal video (42')
- 59' Goal: Sam Smith (assist: Ben Whiteman) — 3–1 · Watch Sam Smith's goal video (59')
- 63' Goal: Kieffer Moore (assist: Joe Worrall) — 4–1
Starting line-ups
Wrexham (3-4-1-2)
Preston (3-4-2-1)
Sirius · Why these numbers
Before kick-off Sirius gave Wrexham 64%, the draw 20%, Preston 16%. It finished Wrexham 4–1 Preston.
Wrexham's stronger rating sets up a clear lead — We give Wrexham 64% mainly because they sit 161 points higher on our strength rating, 1439 to 1278, though home sides across the Championship tend to under-perform, which pulls slightly towards Preston. The draw sits at 20%, close to its usual starting point of 20%, nudged up by the Championship's draw rate and down by a finishing streak and a typical scoring level.
Why Wrexham at 64%?
Wrexham sit 161 points higher on our strength rating — 1439 to 1278. Sides with a 160–240-point rating edge at home won 66.8% of 6,583 such games. The 300 most similar past games finished 59–25–16.
Why only 64%?
Championship home sides under-perform the global norm — and the difference mostly flows to draws (26.9% vs 25.4% norm). Championship homes won 42.9% of 8,475 games vs 44.6% across all 101,264 — outside the noise band, so the tally moves accordingly. Preston sit -0.42 goals per game below chance-quality — cold streaks like this have bounced back. Finishing swings carry a receipt at this rating gap too: sides finishing this cold won 38.7% of 2,529 such games where the class table expected 35.9%.
Why is the draw only 20%?
With a rating gap this size the draw starts at 19.9%. These teams' recent games average 2.8 goals — a typical goals environment. Games in that environment drew 24.8% of 25,198. Championship runs draw-heavy, adding 1.6 points. The bounce-back factor takes 1.1 points off the draw.
What did we measure but not count?
Wrexham have averaged 8 percentage points more possession than Preston in recent games. That doesn’t change our forecast here. Out: George Thomason, an important player, and Joshua Windass and Max Cleworth, rotation players. This does not change our forecast yet: we are still measuring how much missing players like these cost a team. The other measured facts on this page scored nothing either.
Sirius probabilities, frozen at kick-off. Analysis, not betting advice. How Sirius is doing this season · Full breakdown, evidence cards and squad news in the Match Insights tab
About this match
On this page: the Wrexham vs Preston final score and result, goal highlights and video clips of every goal, who scored, starting lineups, match stats and the full match report from this Championship fixture.
- Who scored and when — a goal-by-goal timeline of the match.
- Match stats — possession, shots, expected goals (xG), corners and cards.
- Starting lineups and player ratings for both teams.
- Head-to-head record and recent form for both sides.
- Watch Joe Worrall's goal against Preston (31').
- Watch Alfie Devine's goal against Wrexham (36').
- Watch Ben Whiteman's goal against Preston (42').
- Watch Sam Smith's goal against Preston (59').
Watch the goals: goal highlights and video clips of every goal from Wrexham 4–1 Preston. Explore more on the Wrexham and Preston team pages or the Championship page.