Huddersfield Town will face six new sides in next season's Championship, with the 2015/16 campaign set to be as competitive as ever.

Relegated Premier League trio Hull City , Burnley and Queens Park Rangers will play in the second tier next term, as will promoted third-tier sides Bristol City , MK Dons and Preston North End.

And in the penultimate edition of our mini series, it's time to look at the Lilywhites' return to the division via the play-offs, ending a four-year stay in League One.

The season itself:

They did it the hard way, but Preston North End are back in the Championship following a campaign where they were in contention for automatic promotion for much of the season, only to be pipped to the post by MK Dons on the final day.

But Simon Grayson's men weren't to be denied and their place in the Championship next season feels merited after they cruised their way to Wembley glory without conceding a single goal in their three play-off matches.

They started so strongly, losing just one of their opening 14 matches before hitting a sticky patch in November as they lost three games in succession to put a dent in their title bid, but they showed powers of recovery to force a much-needed 1-0 win at leaders Bristol City.

January saw them slip up once more though and, after a 2-1 defeat at relegation-haunted Crawley Town, they found themselves seven points adrift of Swindon Town and Bristol City and a further point off then leaders MK Dons.

That arrived in a month when they also missed out on the chance to go to Wembley for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final as they lost out over two legs to Walsall in the semi-final and, despite a strong end to the season which included comfortable wins over Swindon and the Dons, they finished just short.

In fact, they lost just one league game between their Crawley reverse and the end of the season and it came on the final day at Colchester United when they needed a win most of all.

But Grayson's side rallied once more to outclass Chesterfield in the semis before beating Swindon even more comprehensively in the final thanks to former Huddersfield Town loan striker Jermaine Beckford's hat-trick, with the 31-year-old having now penned a two-year deal at Deepdale.

Watch Beckford's wonder strike against Chesterfield in the play-off semi finals below...

Highlights of the promotion campaign:

  • The 1-0 win at Bristol City in November was as timely as it was crucial for Preston, with their early-season swagger knocked by three defeats on the bounce as loan striker Callum Robinson gave the Lilywhites an advantage they held onto valiantly in the face of incessant pressure from the home side.

  • A 2-0 win over MK Dons was ultimately the match which inspired Karl Robinson's side to embark on an 11-match unbeaten run until the end of the season but it underlined North End's quality and kept up their impressive record against the top sides, thanks to goals from Robinson and Joe Garner.

  • The play-off semi final was delicately poised heading into the Deepdale second leg, with Beckford having handed Preston a narrow one-goal advantage from the first leg before netting a brace - including a stunning long-range strike over Town goalkeeper Joe Murphy, who joined the Spireites on an emergency loan.

  • The play-off final win over Swindon was emphatic and justified Preston's place in the Championship for 2015/16 as they cruised to victory, with Beckford's stunning hat-trick added to by defender Paul Huntington for an emphatic 4-0 success.

Top scorer:

Joe Garner - No-one managed more goals than Garner in League One last season, with the 27-year-old hitting 26 goals in total to play a key role in North End's promotion push.

Garner finished four clear of Rochdale forward Ian Henderson and scored two hat-tricks in 3-2 and 3-2 wins over Fleetwood Town and Swindon respectively as well as a four-goal haul in the 5-1 demolition job of Crewe Alexandra.

Joe Garner was League One's sharpest finisher in 2014/15

Other key players:

Sam Johnstone - Played a key part in Preston's promotion, with only Bristol City (38) conceding less goals than Grayson's resolute outfit last season in the third tier and the manager is keen to bring the Manchester United loanee back to Deepdale next term.

Daniel Johnson - Grayson snapped up the coveted Aston Villa midfielder in January on a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee and he registered an impressive 11 assists to finish as the fourth-most creative player in the division behind Bristol City's Luke Freeman, team-mate Paul Gallagher and Barnsley starlet Conor Hourihane.

Jermaine Beckford - The former Town loan frontman arrived in November to link up with Grayson once more after spells with him at the John Smith's Stadium and Leeds United before that, bagging 18 goals in total before sealing a summer switch.

Last meeting with Town:

The two teams last faced off in the Capital One Cup in August 2012 as Town suffered a 2-0 defeat at Deepdale.

Jack King opened the scoring with a deft header before Nicky Wroe struck on his debut from a low Chris Beardsley cross on a night where the hosts fielded 10 debutants as Lee Novak and Oscar Gobern squandered chances for the Terriers.

The last league meeting was also at Deepdale, in April earlier that year, as Chris Robertson scored the only goal for Preston as Town slumped to a third successive defeat and were forced to wait to confirm their play-off place.

Nicky Wroe scored the last time Huddersfield Town met Preston North End

Did you know?

Beckford is only the third player ever to score a hat-trick in a play-off final at Wembley after Scott Sinclair (Swansea City, 2011) and Clive Mendonca (Charlton Athletic, 1998) and Preston found it fourth time lucky in a play-off final, having lost their previous three.