Preston North End's new manager Darren Ferguson has wasted no time calling on his family connections. With Preston's Springfields training ground covered in snow, Ferguson has taken his team three times to practice at the state-of-the-art Carrington complex owned by Manchester United, the team managed by his father Sir Alex.

Carrington boasts two grass pitches with undersoil heating, as well as several indoor pitches, and Ferguson has acknowledged "calling in an early favour" from his father ahead of his first game in charge of the club against Bristol City tomorrow. Sir Alex was apparently happy to oblige with his own team already out of the country on a warm-weather training camp in Qatar.

"Some of the lads in our squad have been there before playing for youth teams, I went with Crewe," Preston's right-back Billy Jones told the Lancashire Evening Post. "But it seems to have got bigger recently and has more of the 'Wow factor' about the place, it's quality.

"United are the biggest club in the world at the moment and they're going to have the best training facilities. A couple of the pitches there have undersoil heating and it was one of those we trained on at the end of last week and twice this week.

"The weather recently has been terrible and affected the whole country, but at least we've been able to do some training outdoors. We're now desperate to play Bristol City tomorrow, it was frustrating that the Doncaster game was off last week. With the FA Cup coming up against Chelsea next week, we want to be playing and trying to pick up some league points."