If things worked out differently, Chris Sedgwick could have been lining up against the Lilywhites in Saturday's pre-season friendly against Tony Pulis' Stoke City. The former Rotherham man reportedly had the choice between the Britannia Stadium and Deepdale when he decided to leave Millmoor in November 2004. The winger opted for the latter and has since gone on to make over 200 appearances for the Lilywhites in almost five years.

Whilst Sedgwick may not have joined the Potters, there are still a few familiar names in the Stoke City line-up, Richard Cresswell, Ricardo Fuller and Danny Pugh all previously being in the employ of Preston North End. Sedge is looking forward to tackling them this weekend but in the long-term he will be hopeful of another successful season with PNE, the No.7 has seen fellow wing-man Simon Whaley depart this week, a transfer which is significant as it means that Sedge is the only player remaining from Billy Davies' legacy.

Whaley's transfer to Norwich does not mean that Sedgwick can relax any, Danny Mayor is the latest pretender to the right-wing throne and the experienced Yorkshireman expects Alan Irvine to strengthening the midfield areas before the transfer window shuts at the end of August.

Sedge, Saturday's match represents a chance for you to meet up with some old friends doesn't it?
There'll be a few coming back, Pughy, Cressy and the likes, it should be a tough game for us.

They're a Premiership team but they have Championship elements about them don't they?
Yes, I think that's why the Gaffer has picked them for one of our games. They are a big strong team and you come up against teams like that in the Championship and when Stoke went up they were a big force, they battered and bullied a lot of teams, this will be a good test to see how we stand up to those kind of tactics.



We've had Premiership teams here before in pre-season, teams like Manchester United, but do we learn anything from playing the Premier League's top teams?
Playing Stoke will get us in the frame of mind of what is coming in the Championship but they will have quality as well, they have brought a lot of good players in and spent a bit of money so you have got both sides to it. We are going to have to be on our guard for the physical side to it and you are going to have to be switched on to the quality players that they have got too.

Pre-season has all been about fitness for us so far, have we started working on the technical aspects of the game yet?
Yes, I think you are always looking to do that. We played the other night and we wasn't too good in the first half but in the second half we were a lot better but we are just building up to it. You want to be ready for when the season comes and everything clicking into place.

You can't argue with the way things are planned out, the Gaffer got it spot on at the start of last season with the way we went on that early run of good form.
Obviously the Gaffer knows what he is doing, he has been around a long time, we had a good pre-season last year and it paid off for us. We've gone about things pretty much the same way this year so hopefully we can get a good start and use the work that we have done in a positive way.

We might look a bit tired in some of the pre-season games but it is about looking fresh on August 8th.
The way you prepare for games in pre-season is different to how you would prepare for a game when the season starts. We've been running before games and working hard but it is all about getting the fitness at this time and all about people getting time on the pitch. I've played a couple of 90 minutes already, because of the numbers that we have had, and I am sure that there will be a few more that play 90 minutes on Saturday. At the minute it is all about people getting time on the pitch and as the season comes closer it will be people trying to force their way into that team, making sure they are in there for the first game of the season.

You skippered the side in the immediate aftermath of Paul McKenna's departure, how big a blow is losing Paul?
Paul is not only a good player on the pitch but he's a big player in the dressing room as well. Everyone is disappointed to see him go but you can understand why he has gone, he has been here all of his career and he felt that it was time for a fresh start. There's no doubt that we are going to miss him and the Gaffer is going to look to strengthen in that midfield area, we are probably down to three or four now and it has shown in this pre-season that if we get a couple of injuries it can leave us short.

It's a specialist position protecting that back four isn't it?
Yes, McKenna was great at it, but we have got players here who can do it who never got the chance because Kenna was in there. Paul leaving opens the door for someone else.



'Underrated' is the word everyone uses when they talk about McKenna.
Definitely, people tend to look at his size and judge him on that. But he won more headers than anyone a lot of the time, he's got a great leap on him and he made us play. It showed in a couple of games when we missed him last year, when he didn't play it showed how much we missed him.

Being a local lad who has come through the ranks, they sometimes don't get appreciated as much?
I had it when I was at Rotherham, sometimes you don't get the recognition you deserve. He will probably go to Forest now and get that recognition that he does deserve.

It's important that we don't allow it to affect us too much. The Graham Alexander departure a few years back seemed to really knock us back a bit.
When you lose big players like that it is bound to affect you for a while. But football players move on, it's part and parcel of the game, somebody will move on and take their place. You look at Billy Jones and how he has stepped into the fold since Grezza left, Billy has come on and on and he probably wouldn't have got those games if Grezza had still been here. Someone leaves, but someone always steps in and steps up to the plate.

The new captain Callum Davidson is not the type to let the dressing room morale slip, he's the type that will lift the dressing room.
Callum is a ready made captain to step in. He's a good organiser, he's a good talker on the pitch, he will be a good link between the lads and the management team and he is someone the lads can approach with any problems that they have got, he will do his best to sort it out for them.

We've lost McKenna but if we can keep hold of the others and maybe add one or two then there is still plenty of optimism for the new campaign.
Yes, definitely. It's not all doom and gloom, we've lost a player but that happens, we've got plenty of players here and with a couple of additions, we are a bit short on numbers at the minute, but if we get a few players in then there's no reason why we can't become a good team again.

Make sure you purchase the special pre-season match programme. It's a special double-edition covering both the Stoke and Wigan games and includes exclusive interviews with Andy Lonergan discussing the pre-season speculation, Danny Mayor looking forward to a bright future, Danny Pugh talking about life at PNE and the Potters and the LEP's Dave Seddon giving us the rundown on Wigan Athletic. You can buy it from the usual outlets for just £2.