Frankie McAvoy was full of praise for Sean Maguire ahead of this weekend’s trip to Birmingham, not only because of his goal against Cheltenham Town, but his all-round performances this season.
Maguire has started the last five Championship matches, all of which have been part of the current unbeaten run, and he’s formed a great partnership up top with Emil Riis.
Speaking to our matchday programme The One And Only recently, the Irish forward said the older he gets, the more he appreciates how his game is much more than goals, but nevertheless he will have been pleased to open his account for the campaign on Tuesday evening in the 4-1 Carabao Cup victory.
“I was absolutely delighted with him scoring; he’s done really well,” Frankie told iFollow PNE. “Since I’ve taken over, most of the time I’ve played Ched [Evans] up top, but Sean’s come in, he’s got his opportunity and chance, he’s had to be patient, and I think for the team he’s done really, really well.
“Sometimes as a front player you don’t always score and a lot of the time you judge strikers on assists and goals, but his all-round performance has been really good and I was delighted that he was able to break his duck and score the other night for the season and hopefully there’s many more to come.
“He should be pleased with himself because he’s done really well.”
Maguire came off the bench in that fixture due to the early injury picked up by striker Connor Wickham on his full debut for the club.
Liam Lindsay was also forced off in the same game and Frankie gave an update on their conditions heading into the weekend.
He said: “Liam’s isn’t as bad as we thought, so we’re very hopeful with Liam which is great news, but Connor’s isn’t so good.
“He’s got a muscle injury but we need to get the opinion of a specialist to see how that progresses and how that gets fully diagnosed, so that’s not good for us at the moment.
“My thoughts are with Connor because he’s come in, he’s worked really hard, he’s desperate to do well and we felt that we had him in a good place.
"It’s just one of these things that can happen in football unfortunately and fingers crossed it’s not too bad for him, but we’ve just got to deal with it as it is and hopefully we can kick on.”
PNE head to Birmingham this weekend for the ninth game of the Championship season, to take on Lee Bowyer’s side who currently sit 11th in the division.
Frankie said: “It’ll be a tough game. Lee Bowyer’s gone in there and done really well. We know Lee from when we went to Charlton and he was the manager at the time.
“He did well bringing them up into the Championship from League One and he’s went in and turned Birmingham City around to be quite honest and he’s done really well.”
Away from league matters, North End found out their fourth round opposition in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening, with a tie against Liverpool at Deepdale awaiting towards the end of October.
“To be honest I was looking for a home tie,” admitted Frankie. “I think quite a lot of the supporters, I knew that with my son and my daughter too, were hoping they can get a big tie away from home, but I’m delighted with it to be honest.
“I think it’s great for Preston. It’s great for the city and it’s great for the supporters to see one of the best teams in the world coming to our patch, with an opportunity and chance to try and progress to the quarter finals of a major cup competition. It’s just fantastic for Preston.”
Hear more from Frankie on iFollow PNE at the top of this page.