Alan Browne wants Preston North End to mark their impressive second campaign back in the Championship with an end-of-season win against Wolves this weekend.
The Lilywhites travel to Molineux for the final league outing at noon on Sunday, occupying 11th place with 62 points – exactly how Simon Grayson’s men finished last season.
Therefore, North End will better that points tally by avoiding defeat against Wolves, but Browne is keen for more and hopes a victory could provide the springboard for the side to start well next term, as well as rewarding the fans for their loyal support.
“We are where we are at the moment, hopefully on Sunday we can get the three points to improve on last season,” the 22-year-old told PNE.com.
“For ourselves, it’s a case of improving on last season now obviously, I still don’t think we’ve anything left to play for, but at the same time we don’t want this win-less streak to continue into next year because it could add up and people will say ‘they haven’t won in so many games’.”
“Hopefully we can get that win, especially for the fans, who know we don’t have anything to play for but their continued support is amazing to see.
“They’ve been great all season and consistent all year around with us. They stuck by us through the bad times and enjoyed the good ones, so it’ll be a good send off for them.”
North End had been within five points of the Play-Offs just over a month ago and were well in contention to break into the top six.
Next season, Browne is determined to improve again and help the team to challenge for those higher positions in the league table once more.
“On a personal basis I think I’ve improved again, which I was looking to do and I’m happy with the game time that I’ve got. As a team, we were good for a period but I feel like we could have done a lot better and maybe should have. We may have ended up a lot of higher, but it just wasn’t to be.
“I think the most important thing is to get off to a good start next season, which we didn’t manage to do this year.
“That’s something we’ll definitely want to improve on and I think sometimes at the start of the season, you don’t know what to expect and you’re maybe happy with a draw here or there, but I think next season we really have to push for wins.”
Overall though, the young midfielder has been happy with North End’s continued progression and is optimistic that can continue into their third season back in the second tier next season.
“I think we’re one of the more established teams in the division after the last two years that we’ve had. In the first year back, people didn’t know what to expect and some might have said it was a bit of luck.
“But I don’t think that was the case and we definitely proved that this year by going again and challenging for that play-off spot, but our form towards the end of the season dipped and it was just unfortunate that we couldn’t keep the challenge up.
“We know what we’re capable of, I think we’ve seen that in the last two years now – we can compete with any team in this league. So I think once we get off to a good start, it’s progress and we can build from there.”