90+3 min: A little break in play with Adomah picking up a knock. The local sponsors have given John Welsh the man-of-the-match award. That’s probably about right, he’s been a terrier, and largely stifled Boro’s attacking play.

90+1 min: Four minutes added on here for injury time.

90 min: Chance for Garner, but he’s blown it! Cunningham delivers a cross from deep that catches Friend flat-footed. Garner is perhaps a yard off-side but it’s not flagged and he nods wide from five yards out! Crucial miss!

89 min: What a block from Clarke! Downing curls a ball towards Stuani at the back post, which is headed out only as far as Adomah on the edge of the area. He takes a touch, steadies himself and unleashes a piledriver but both Clarke and Huntington throw themselves at it. Brave stuff.

87 min: Another Boro sub, Forshaw coming on for Leadbitter.

85 min: Another Gallagher set-piece, another wild effort on goal. This time it’s Garner who heads harmlessly over.

83 min: Preston make their second change: Keane coming off for Hugill. Keane has done an awful lot of running today, but save for his shot that was cleared off the line, hasn’t threatened Boro’s goal.

81 min: Downing finds some space in the middle of the pitch, drives towards goal and unleashes a fierce right-footed drive which goes maybe a couple of yards over the bar. He’s very one-footed, Downing, but can score with his right; for example at Stoke last season for West Ham. Here’s some terrible footage of the goal, excellent footage of fans going mental.

79 min: Cunningham is applauded for booting a cross into the stands. I’m not entirely sure why. That was rubbish.

77 min: Preston also make a change, with Vermijl replaced by Humphrey.

76 min: Turns out, he’s on his way off the pitch. Kike off, Stuani on, to make his competitive debut for the club.

75 min: Fabbrini drives down the left and crosses, but there is not one Boro player in the box. Where is Kike?

73 min: Riot! Riot Riot! First Clayton sends Keane flying. Cunningham puts Kike on his bum. Then Leadbitter Leadbitters Cunningham. Some textbook handbags ensue. Nobody is booked. Lenient.

71 min: Boro are definitely the stronger at the moment, with Leadbitter conducting much of the play from a deep-lying position.

69 min: Fabbrini has indeed brought this game back to life! He’s playing more central now with Downing out on the left. Fabbrini escapes a wild lunge from Welsh to break into a rare pocket of space, and slips a lovely ball inside the Preston full-back to Adomah. The winger is clean through on goal but tries to round the keeper when he might have shot, and the backtracking Welsh is able to clear!

66 min: Leadbitter is fouled but not allowed to play an advantage. He gives the referee a piece of his mind.

64 min: Despite the dearth in quality, you have to tip your hat to both Preston’s midfield three of Gallagher, Welsh and Johnson. They haven’t stopped running.

61 min: Downing has been anonymous. He’s done nothing this second half.

59 min: The quality is poor, to be honest. Nothing is happening. Boro are getting ready for their first change: Fabbrini, on loan from Watford is coming on for Reach. Let’s hope the Italian can inject some life into this game.

55 min: Kalas is the latest Boro player to be sent crashing to the turf, after Cunningham puts one or two studs into the back of the Czech’s achilles. Ouch.

52 min: Kike is cynically fouled by Clarke, and the Spaniard wastes no time in telling the referee what he thinks about it. The referee instead books Kike for dissent.

51 min: What a miss from Ayala! From the corner, he heads a good 10 yards over the bar despite having a free header on the edge of the six-yard box. Terrible effort, he completely mis-timed his jump and didn’t get over it.

50 min: Excellent run from Adomah, the first time he has really taken the fight to his opposite man on the right flank. He works half a yard and whips a cross to the near post, where Kike is just beaten to the ball by Huntington, who heads behind for a corner.

49 min: Billy Wright upends Kike – free-kick to Boro but again Downing is wasteful, with Pickford easily claiming. Boro yet to have a shot on target, Pickford has had nothing to do.

47 min: Clarke bravely wins a header on the edge of Boro’s box, and the ball nearly falls to Keane, but Konstantopoulos is quick off his line to smother the ball.

Peeep peeep! And we’re underway again.

Here is some more information on Gary Parkinson, the former Preston and Boro player in attendance today that suffers from locked-in syndrome.

Despite being fully-paralysed, Parkinson was hired as a scout by Boro in 2011. He would review players on DVD and then communicate his thoughts by blinking to his wife, who would then pass on the information to then-manager Tony Mowbray.

“When Tony first came to see Gary, he could see Gary was still aware of everything that was going on around him. So he asked Gary if he wanted to do some scouting for him,” Deborah said in 2011.

“A DVD comes down to us, with a sheet of paper. There is a description of the player, his name, his age, his position and the clubs he has played for.”

Quite remarkable.

Mid-match entertainment:

43 min: Vermijl chucks a long throw deep into the Boro box, and Konstantopoulos again fails to deal with it, on his own line he can only touch the high throw down, and is lucky that no Preston player is on hand to stab the ball in.

40 min: Garner is again brought down. Free-kick, and an ironic cheer goes up around Deepdale. There is the feeling that Preston have been on the wrong end of a few decisions this half.

37 min: The game is hotting up, with Garner inevitably in the throng of the action. He becomes sandwiched between Clayton and Ayala, and the three struggle for a good few seconds, as they try to untangle their limbs. Did Clayton stamp on Garner there? It certainly looks like he did.

35 min: Johnson, a man with some of the finest dreadlocks you are ever likely to see, is impressing for Preston this first half, showing a few deft touches. He drives into the area, and lays the ball back for Vermijl, but the Belgian completely slices it wide with his weaker left foot.

32 min: Clarke is booked for hacking down Friend. The Preston captain comes off a little worse, that looked like a nasty clash of shins. The free-kick is pumped into the box by Downing, but Ayala is penalised for grabbing Huntington by the neck.

29 min: Another mistake from Konstantopoulos gifts Preston another chance: this time he fumbles a cross from the left, and Garner pounces, attempting to lift the ball over the scrambling keeper, but it’s blocked. For all their possession, Boro are lucky not to be at least 1-0 down here.

28 min: Friend clears off the line! From the resulting free-kick, Konstantopoulos flaps at the cross, and the ball drops to Keane just beyond the penalty spot. He shoots low through a crowd of bodies, but Friend is just able to stab it clear, one yard off his own line. Saved a certain goal!

27 min: Keane is full of running, harrowing Kalas and Adomah, and winning the ball back. He passes to Garner, who is unceremoniously chopped down by the frustrated Adomah. Garner is really in the wars at the moment.

24 min: Garner is at it again, this time out-jumping Friend, with the two players landing in a heap on the floor. Garner is only 5ft8in remember, he’s got a remarkable leap, and scored plenty of headers last season in League One.

22 min: Garner and Ayala clash, the latter giving the Preston striker a little bump on the head with his elbow. It’s not violent, but Garner is understandably not happy. They exchange words, the referee Chris Kavanagh calms things down. No bookings.

19 min: Downing, who is indeed playing in that No10 role, is dropping very deep to pick up the ball. Preston will be happy for him to have the ball there.

15 min: What a run from George Friend. He dribbles the ball unchallenged from the edge of his own box to the edge of Preston’s, ghosting past Vermijl then Walsh, the Huntington. But instead of going for goal, he tries to pass to Kike and it is well intercepted by the covering Wright. That was a lung-busting run, he was probably too tired to shoot!

13 min: Boro have had 67% possession so far. They’ve started well.

11 min: If Wright’s miss was bad, this is worse from Leadbitter. He is furious with himself! Boro’s captain played a clever one-two with Kike, dropped his shoulder to leave Huntington on his backside, and under no pressure whatsoever, flashed his shot wide from 10 yards out.

9 min: Chance for Preston’s Wright! Oh, he should do so much better. Gallagher is again over a set piece, and this time delivers a beauty to the near post – Wright completely loses his man and has a free run at the cross, but mis-times his header and the effort dribbles wide.

7 min: There is a round of applause from both sets of supporters for Gary Parkinson, a player formerly of both Preston and Boro, who suffers from locked-in syndrome. Parkinson is in attendance in the stands today. Nice touch, that.

6 min: Boro’s away fans are out in full force today. “One Steven Gibson, there’s only one Steven Gibson” they chant about their beloved chairman.

4 min: And what a way for Fry to introduce himself to Joe Garner, whacking him flush on the face with a high boot. Ouch. Free-kick to Preston, but Gallagher wastes it, punting it too long.

2 min: It’s a very pedestrian start with Boro’s defence, popping it about without much pressure. At the heart of that defence today is 17-year-old Dael Fry, making his full debut, who replaces the injured Ben Gibson. Big day for the youngster.

Peeep peeep! And we’re off.

The teams are out! John Welsh has lost his beard! Let’s do this!

Just under 10 minutes until kick-off.

Preston have released their playlist for today’s match. I assume that this is what they will blare out around the stadium, rather than in the dressing room/players’ headphones. But you never know.

Note Simon Grayson’s choice – Mr Brightside by The Killers – and the final song in the ‘Peak run-up’: Can’t Help Falling in Love, by UB40.

As my colleague Tom Bryant points out, not sure how ‘Living on a Prayer’ is supposed to inspire the Preston team/supporters …

Here’s what Karanka had to say prior to today’s game:

We are more mature now, more experienced, better and stronger now than last season. When I saw the first training session I knew they were ready. The expectations on us this season are a lot higher. 18 months ago we were close to the relegation position and last season were nearly went up, so everyone expects us to do even better this time. I haven’t got the squad I want just yet, but already we are stronger than we were last season.

Can we all just stop for a moment and admire this photo from 20 years ago? What a kit that is!

Today’s teams:

Preston: Pickford, Vermijl, Clarke, Huntington, Wright, Cunningham, Welsh, Johnson, Gallagher, Keane and Garner.
Subs: James, Humphrey, Kilkenny Woods, Browne, Brownhill and Hugill.

New signings Will Keane and Marnick Vermijl start for Preston, as do new boys Greg Cunningham and Jordan Pickford. Beckford is injured but is expected to return next week.

Middlesbrough: Dimi, Kalas, Ayala, Fry, Friend, Adomah, Clayton, Leadbitter, Reach, Downing, Kike

Subs: Mejias, Carayol, Stephens, Stuani, Nsue, Fabbrini, Forshaw.

Kike to play up top on his own for Boro, with Downing tucked in behind. It was in that position that Downing shone so brightly for West Ham at the start of last season.