Manager Simon Grayson has drawn comparisons between the Lilywhites and Birmingham City ahead of the tip to St Andrews on Tuesday night.
The North End boss says that the Blues are a very consistent side, who make like difficult for their opponents and he is hoping to see the same sort of resilience from his own squad.
“Preparations have been good; after the game on Friday we were off on Saturday and then trained on Sunday and Monday,” he said. “One or two players have now recovered from the Tuesday night game and so we are looking forward to it.
“They are a good team, who had a really good season last year and have made a good start against this year. You know what you are going to get from Gary’s team – they are organised and hard to beat. They have some good options now if Donaldson comes back in and they have Jutkieweicz on loan from Burnley and they paid over £1m for Adams from Sheffield United, so they are trying to build on what they did last year.
“We had two good games with them, both ended in draws and we have to make sure that we keep improving and do the right ingredients that have given us the last two results.
“They are a team that are an example of being very consistent. They are never out of games and always ask questions of you. They make things difficult for you and that’s why they are where they are, in the top six.
“They have got some good results. They have a lot of character in amongst them and a lot of experienced heads as well as players who can do something out of nothing, so overall they are a good example of what consistency can do for you sitting in the top six.
“We are very similar to them; we are organised and disciplined. They players know their roles and what they need to do and that needs to be the case.
“I don’t like my teams to be ones where you never know what you are going to get. You can be brilliant one week and poor the next, winning 4-0 and then losing 5-0 the next week and Birmingham and ourselves are not like that.
“We are very similar in that way, as are the players we have recruited to work with. So we know what we need to do; we have to try and build off the last couple of results and finish this busy schedule before the next international break with good results in two very tough, and different types of games we have this week.”
“Preparations have been good; after the game on Friday we were off on Saturday and then trained on Sunday and Monday,” he said. “One or two players have now recovered from the Tuesday night game and so we are looking forward to it.
“They are a good team, who had a really good season last year and have made a good start against this year. You know what you are going to get from Gary’s team – they are organised and hard to beat. They have some good options now if Donaldson comes back in and they have Jutkieweicz on loan from Burnley and they paid over £1m for Adams from Sheffield United, so they are trying to build on what they did last year.
“We had two good games with them, both ended in draws and we have to make sure that we keep improving and do the right ingredients that have given us the last two results.
“They are a team that are an example of being very consistent. They are never out of games and always ask questions of you. They make things difficult for you and that’s why they are where they are, in the top six.
“They have got some good results. They have a lot of character in amongst them and a lot of experienced heads as well as players who can do something out of nothing, so overall they are a good example of what consistency can do for you sitting in the top six.
“We are very similar to them; we are organised and disciplined. They players know their roles and what they need to do and that needs to be the case.
“I don’t like my teams to be ones where you never know what you are going to get. You can be brilliant one week and poor the next, winning 4-0 and then losing 5-0 the next week and Birmingham and ourselves are not like that.
“We are very similar in that way, as are the players we have recruited to work with. So we know what we need to do; we have to try and build off the last couple of results and finish this busy schedule before the next international break with good results in two very tough, and different types of games we have this week.”