Last year's two-goal hero Chris Brown is ready to do battle with local rivals Blackpool once again.
The PNE hitman has already been in the wars this week following a rugged performance against Championship league leaders Newcastle United, it was a performance which left him bloodied and bandaged and he expects the same again when the Lilywhites go into battle against their Tangerine rivals.
Brown wrote himself into Deepdale folklore when he grabbed a brace of goals in North End's 3-1 victory at Bloomfield Road last season and he tells pne.com that he's hoping that a similar result on Monday night can kickstart PNE's season into action.
Chris, a return to Bloomfield Road on Monday night which will bring back great memories from our victory there last season?
It was a great result at their place, the lads put in a really good performance, especially in the second half, and that gave us confidence for the games after that. It was a good game, a good day all round.
We'd won two out of our previous ten games before last year's trip to Blackpool, an identical run of form to that which we've just been on, we'll be hopeful that a win at Bloomfield can spark us into form, like it did last season?
The game before we went to Norwich and drew which was a good result and then obviously we followed the Blackpool win up against Barnsley which we won as well. Games like that lift confidence and a win there on Monday night will be a massive confidence booster.
We didn't have the best of starts in that game, going behind after 10 minutes but we really hit back in the second half. What did the Gaffer say at half-time to inspire that comeback?
From what I remember he just told us to keep going because we were creating chances. He said that if we got an early goal then the game is ours and that's how it proved. I remember Chappy ran the game that day, he was outstanding, he kept going for 90 minutes and we dominated the match.
Your goal got us back on level terms, a typical centre-forward's header.
Ross put a great ball in for us and I've just managed to get my big head on it. It was a great start to the second half, pretty early and that settled us down a little bit and got the fans on our side and helped us kick on.
Neil Mellor put us ahead and then you got that crucial third goal. It was a goal that seemed to take forever to find the back of the net.
Yes, it got stuck under my feet. I managed to give the keeper the eyes and it went in.
The goal celebrations from that game will live long in the memory. Mells seemed to out-do you on that front.
Yes, he went one step further didn't he? He jumped into the crowd; I think he was celebrating with his brother. I was going to jump in the crowd but I didn't fancy getting mobbed. They were good celebrations.
There was a real feeling of togetherness between the players and the fans on that game. It was clear to see what it meant to everyone connected with the Club.
It was brilliant. There was also the beamback at Deepdale. It was a great day, one which people were talking about for weeks afterwards. Another day like that might be just what we need to kick-start our season again. We were saying the other day that they will be favourites for this one which will be the first time for a while. We have shown the other night that we are back to playing well again so we will see how it goes.
You say that people were talking about it for weeks afterwards, I think to be fair people will be talking about that day for years afterwards?
Yes. I don't live in Preston but I still get fans coming up to me telling me that they were there the day we beat Blackpool. It was a great day for the lads and it was really an honour with the way the fans got behind us. They are very passionate supporters and we will be looking to get that out of them again with our performance on Monday night.
We expect Blackpool to be a different proposition on Monday night; Ian Holloway has really got them firing on all cylinders.
I don't know what it is. He's got them battling, working hard, playing football; he's completely changed them around. He's made some good shrewd signings and everything seems to have clicked straight away. But it's 11 against 11 and we have got the players to beat them.
The incentive for us has to be the first away team to win at Bloomfield Road this season?
Definitely. Any game away from home is going to be difficult, especially against your local rivals but what better way to kick-start your season than going there and beating them.
Just looking back to last Monday, we lost the game but it was clear to see there was an improvement in how we played?
If you look at it, you can see that everyone raised their game. Confidence seemed to come back, we were passing the ball a lot better, we were winning tackles in midfield and getting on the ball and dominating the game which is something that we hadn't been doing.
You mentioned earlier that Chappy dominated the game at Bloomfield last season and now he's over his double hernia worries he will be looking to get back to his best?
When Chappy is on his game there is nobody out there who can touch him. He's one of the fittest players I have ever seen, he can run for 90 minutes, he runs away from players and he is unplayable when he is on his game. Once we get him back to full fitness it will help us massively.
Michael Tonge looks to have settled in quite quickly?
I thought Tonge was outstanding. The way he was running at them with the ball, driving at their defence, it offers something different. Someone to take the ball in tight situations and calm the game down.
You took a bit of a battering in that Newcastle game. The Terry Butcher headband was in full view.
Yes, it reminds me what I look like with a skinhead, it's not going to be nice when I am older. It's a good job I am hard as nails.
Brown is 8/1 to score the first or last goal against Blackpool and 5/2 to score at anytime. Go to pnebetting.com for a full range of bets.
