A self-confessed Sheffield Wednesday supporter, Chris Sedgwick will be putting personal and family thoughts out of his mind on Saturday afternoon as he looks to assist the Lilywhites in maintaining their 100 per cent start to the season.
The 28-year-old has kept new signing Ross Wallace and Lewis Neal out of the reckoning in the opening fortnight of the season by making the left-wing slot his own with a couple of excellent performances and he told PNE.Com that he was both delighted to be involved and enjoying the change in style.
"We have set ourselves standards and it has shown in the first three games how the gaffer wants us to play," Sedg told the official website. "We are not getting carried away. We have got three wins, but all it is, is a few good results, but we want to keep the standards we have set without getting carried away.
"The style that the gaffer wants us to play is good for me; people have got freedom to move about and pop up in different positions and people are getting on the ball in areas that can hurt the opposition and I am enjoying that.
"I am definitely just pleased to be playing. You just want to keep doing well and keep doing your stuff and you will stay in the side, because there is a lot of competition in the squad now."
Now approaching 450 career appearances, Sedgwick is the most experienced player in the North End squad. Looking ahead to facing his childhood heroes, he believes it will be a tough test of North End's good start.
"Like us last year, they had a terrible start last year and they will have been pleased to get some points and win on the board in the first week," he continued. "By all accounts they were also the better side in the first half last week at Wolves. It is always a tough game when you go to Hillsborough and I doubt it will be any different on Saturday.
"It is very beneficial to know about your opposition via the video work we do. You know the oppositions' strengths and weaknesses and you know who you are going to be coming up against - what they are good at and not so good at. It also plants a seed into your mind so you are not going into a game thinking 'I didn't know they were going to do that'."
Even though we are on the road tomorrow, heading across the Penines, the former Rotherham man also commented on the completed Deedpale: "It was fantastic playing in front of it last week. It is an absolutely wonderful stadium now. There was nothing worse than playing down that side when it was just the boards there, but with the stand now up and looking so good, makes it a really good stadium.
"I think the club has had to move on. We have had some relative success getting to Play-Off Finals and semis, but we made a bit of a backward step last year, but off the pitch it is moving forward. The training ground pitches have been invested in, which needed doing, and the money has been put into the stand, so it is all gearing up to a top class club now."
Finally back onto the Roses clash and it looks like a significant number of yellow clad Lancastrians will head over for this big game and the support is something Sedg and his team-mates are very grateful for.
"There is always a good away following and it helps the lads. They usually get behind the boys and it is nice to hear. People are always going to expect things to be good when you win a few games, but the lads and everyone else are keeping their feet on the ground."
Sedg is the only midfielder not to have notched a goal so far this season, but this could be the perfect venue, against the team he supported as a boy - back him to score and win a pound or two with PNEBetting.com - click here to have a bet now.
