15 goal Preston North End striker Milutin Osmajic returns against Wrexham, which is bad news for Phil Parkinson’s men ahead of the final game of 2025.
Currently, the dust is starting to settle down on Wrexham’s 5-3 win over Sheffield United on Boxing Day night. Make no mistake, the 5 goal performance against the Blades was a top tier effort from Phil Parkinson’s men.
Still, the Red Dragons have a good checklist of mistakes they can’t afford to repeat starting tomorrow. Chris Wilder’s freely scoring Sheffield United have retreated from North Wales, making way for Preston North End to arrive in town.
Obviously, the Blades don’t have a rivalry with Preston but the two Championship outfits have experienced completely opposite seasons so far. Starting with Sheffield United, they massively underperformed for a couple of months in the second tier as compared to Preston North End who began the 2025/26 campaign on a high note.
However, from early November the story flipped completely at both Preston and the Blades. Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United bagged wins after wins and climbed their way to mid table while Monday night’s opponents Preston struggled for wins amidst a flurry of draws.
One of those many evenings where Preston North End split points included a 1-1 away trip for Wrexham. As a Red Dragons fan, it’s natural to wonder what changed drastically at both clubs?
The simple answer is strikers. In November, Sheffield United hit the jackpot with a free transfer for Wrexham’s summer transfer target Patrick Bamford.
His two goals on Friday nearly spoiled Wrexham’s Christmas spirits, but the trouble doesn’t end here.
Preston North End striker Milutin Osmajic returns against Wrexham
As mentioned above, Preston North End’s sudden mid-season crisis was down to a poor attacking output. Most notably, due to 26 year old centre forward Milutin Osmajic’s FA suspension which stretched over nine games.
According to a Lancashire Post report, Osmajic’s penalty is over just in time for the 2025 year end Wrexham clash.
Knowing Wrexham’s hard luck with unavailable players these days, watching a star Championship striker return to face us doesn’t come as a surprise. To rub salt onto wounds, Osmajic found the back of the net a whopping 15 times for Preston North End across all competitions in the previous season.
Milutin Osmajic’s performance in the 2025/26 Championship
Back in August, Osmajic kicked off the new Championship season from where he had left. The Montenegro international bagged back-to-back-to-back goals in the first three games as if netting goals was a walk in the park for him.
And did I say, that included hitting game winners against the likes of Leicester City and Ipswich Town who were playing Premier League football not long ago.
I know, it’s wishful to say but had the Preston game been swapped with the Sheffield United one in the schedule, Osmajic wouldn’t have been cleared to play at the Racecourse.
Then, Phil Parkinson’s men would have little scoring threats to worry about the Lilywhites. Three weeks back, every Wrexham fan saw how Preston were forced to double down on their man marking tactics simply because their attack was toothless without Osmajic.
In comparison, Wrexham aren’t a rock solid backline unit. Atleast, not now when in form number 9’s like Zan Vipotnik and Patrick Bamford keep testing Arthur Okonkwo’s save making ability from inside the box.
Similarly, Osmajic will turn another thorn in the Red Dragons box unless Parky opts to shut down Preston’s attacks like he attempted in the Swansea loss. A better approach will be to field the same Wrexham starting lineup as Boxing Day and aim to score 3 times again.
Conceding thrice happens very rarely over the course of the full 90 minutes, so, I’m backing Wrexham to seal a 3-2 victory here.
