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Midfielder makes his choice
Preston North End, 18:48, June 18, 2009 ,
Preston have lost out to Sheffield Utd in the race to sign Lee Williamson who has left Watford for an undisclosed fee.
The ex-Rotherham star spent the back end of the campaign on loan at Deepdale and impressed, but the lure of a return to Yorkshire to play for a big promotion contender proved to be too much.
PNE boss Alan Irvine has placed Sheffield United, who edged past North End in last season's play-offs, among a select group of five who he believes will be going for automatic promotion next term.
"I did an exercise at the end of the season where I had a look at where I thought each of the teams would expect to be competing," said the former Everton assistant.
"I thought there were five or six who will be expecting automatic promotion and 10 who would be expecting to compete for the play-offs.
"There is probably only three who would be happy with a top-half finish and only about five who would be delighted just to stay up in the division. It's going to be an extremely competitive division again."