The man charged with keeping a watchful eye on PNE's goalkeepers' union, Andy Rhodes, tells pne.com that he is looking forward to working with Preston's talented batch of keepers. Rhodes has been in the job less than a month but he has already settled in very well and has already made acquaintences with the Royle family!

"As soon as the Gaffer gave me the call to come up and have a little chat about it and offered me the job there was no hesitation," Rhodes told the Official Website.

"I had a couple of other little offers in the pipeline but there was no hesitation, I couldn't wait to get here. I've settled in very nicely, it's a nice environment to work in, very easy to settle down, the Gaffer and all the boys have made me very welcome, so it's been a breeze."

Rhodes is no stranger to the North West, the 43-year-old enjoyed two very successful years as a player at Oldham Athletic and later returned to Boundary Park to work as goalkeeping coach. It was through the Latics that Andy first met his former boss and current landlord Joe Royle.

"I've got a lot of friends up in this area. Joe Royle lives just down the road at Ormskirk, I'm staying with Joe at the moment and there are other people like David Unsworth, Franny Jeffers and all the Oldham people, it's a home from home. It's been a while since I've been up here but it is nice to be back."

Whilst the goalkeeping coach might be back in Lancashire, it was an early return to Suffolk, the fixture list pitted him against his former club, Ipswich Town, in his first game at PNE. For the Rhodes family it was a special day, Andy's son, Jordan, came off the bench for Jim Magilton's side and made it a real family affair at Portman Road.

Rhodes smiles: "The headlines would have been made if he scored, I could see something happening like that, fortunately we managed to get the victory which was the main thing. It was unusual, football has these little quirks that it throws up and I am sure the management and staff down at Ipswich were looking forward to me coming back."

But it's North End's current crop of keepers that Rhodes is firmly focused on, he admits that he is looking forward to working with all of the keepers that are involved in the PNE squad.

"I know Lonners really well from being in teams involved against him, he's always played terrific against us. I know a little bit about Wayne, who has obviously been injured for a while. The other guys I don't know too much about, I've had a chance to work with big Andy Murphy for a while now and he's got a bit of potential.

"I've seen Chris come on as a sub once when we were up here with Ipswich, it was when Wardy got carried off, so I've got a little feeling for most of them and of course I am excited about working with them."

Andy will be hoping to help maintain the excellent form of PNE's current No.1, Andy Lonergan. The stopper has been in excellent form for the Lilywhites in 2008 and though Rhodes admits he won't be changing too many things there might be one or two aspects that are different to previous coach Dave Timmins.

"I think we all have different ideas," says Rhodes.

"I don't think my practices will be too different to what any other goalkeeping coaches do, it's all variations on a theme. My ideas on goalkeeping and other people's ideas on coaching will vary, it's certainly an individual thing.

"Speaking to the boys here, they have said some of the things they are doing with me they haven't done before, but the basis of the ideas are the same.

"You will have spells over the course of a season where you will make mistakes but it is all about character and getting over them. Form comes and goes, the longer you can keep that form then the more successful you are going to be."