Richard Chaplow thoroughly enjoyed his time at The Hawthorns. After a million pound move from hometown Burnley the midfielder had the chance to play Premier League football and has no regrets about making the move. Looking ahead to the Championship match of the weekend, he does not feel he has anything to prove and is just looking forward to competing for a place in the top two by the time everyone else kicks off at three o'clock.
The former England U21 man scored his first goal of the season at Leicester last weekend, finishing off Neil Mellor's lung-busting run to give the Lilywhites the three points and against the fellow promotion contenders this weekend he is hoping the side can replicate that performance and give the watching TV audience and illustration of the kind of football North End have been playing so far this season.
The website caught up with him at Springfields as the team were completing their final preparations ahead of the arrival of Roberto Di Matteo's side for the 12.45pm kick-off on Saturday.
Will the team be looking for an immediate reaction to the midweek defeat?
Definitely. We put on an excellent performance at Leicester and followed that with a mixed display in midweek. It was a bad first half and a lot better in the second. We are looking for an immediate response on Saturday and they'll be looking to do the same after two bad results for them. The gaffer is big on reacting to an upsetting performance or result and the lads, with rhe character we've got in the dressing room, are all mad about that as well. We all want to do as well as possible this season and to do that we have to react as many times as we can.
You are all experienced and strong enough to be able to react.
Yeah, it was just one bad half. We were quite good out of the blocks, but after the first 20 minutes we got a bit sloppy, but we showed in the second half that we could have gone on and won the game if chances had gone for us. We are massive on bouncing back and, fingers crossed, albeit we're against a good West Brom team, we hope we can do that.
Over the years, despite yo-yoing, West Brom have always been able to keep the core of their Premiership sides together, which means they are always going to be up there the following season.
They have been a yo-yo team and because of that, every time they go up they get a lot of money and on the back of that they can keep things solid with their squad. They have got some very good players. They have lost a couple of influential players in Jonathan Greening and Paul Robinson, but theey are competitive and get the ball down and I am sure it is going to be a very tough game.
As a former West Brom player, do you feel you have anything to prove?
I got asked that question by a friend recently, and no I don't. I had a good time there. I enjoyed it, but as far as I am concerned I want to put in a good performance whoever I play against, whether it is West Brom or Crystal Palace. I have been happy with my performances so far this season. Just to be involved again after the end to last season has been good and I just want to keep fit and get as many games under my belt as I can.
Come down to Deepdale and support Chappy and the rest of the boys for the early kick-off. Tickets are available at MyPNE.Com for anyone - registration has been lifted - until midnight on Friday - and then tickets are on sale again from the ticket office and on 0844 856 1966 from 9am on Saturday morning, right up until kick-off. Click here to buy online now.
