New loan signing Elliott Ward sat on the bench in Tuesday night's heart ache against Middlesbrough but was impressed by the lads performance.

Following the defeat, Ward talked about how it has been a non-stop 24 hours for him and how he is glad to be here and hopefully get some football under his belt.

Ward played against North End whilst on loan at Doncaster just over one month ago when Donny managed to grab a draw at Deepdale.

The big central defender also played agianst the Whites in the 2002 play off final defeat against West Ham but he insisted he would keep that one quiet.

Pleased to have got the day over with Ward said: "It's been a bit of a long day. I went training this morning and all of a sudden I've had to travel up, but I'm happy to be here. It's good to see the lads playing well tonight, just a shame about the result.

"But that's the beauty of loans. It's a shame Donny couldn't extend my loan but hopefully I'll get a few games here.

"I went to Doncaster to get games and that's why I'm here. Hopefully things go well and we'll see what happens."

Despite his size Ward likes to play good passing football and i keen to impress with his footballing ability.

The defender said: "Obviously I'm a defender, but I like to play football. As a defender I defend first, but when I can play I try and play. This is the right team that hopefully suits the way I play and hopefully I suit them and we can bounce off each other. I want to play football and that's why I'm here and I want to do well in every game I play.

"I like to play football like I said, and the manager has told me how he wants to play and I've seen clips of it tonight. When and if I get the chance I hope to show people what I've got. That's to play on the ball and be solid aswell."

Pleased with what he saw against Boro, the big man said the Lilywhites wereunlucky not to get anything out of the game and that he's looking forward to a busy weeks training.

"Tonight we totally controlled the game. It's just a shame we didn't get the goal to match the way we were playing. It's a shame Boro got the goal and I think if it was 0-0 at half time there's every chance we've come away with three points.

"See what happens from now until Saturday. I'll get my head down, train hard, andsee what happens. If I play it'll be nice to play infront of the home fans, and hopefully get the win. We need to pick up a few more wins to climb the table."

For a full video interview go to PNE Player