Manager Graham Westley is a big believer that a good cup run can pay big dividends in the league.
The North End boss is thoroughly looking forward to taking on local rivals Morecambe in the second round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday night, especially after the feisty pre-season clash between the sides at the Globe Arena back in July.
Looking ahead to the game with the local press he said that any opportunity to head to country’s national stadium was one that should be relished.
“It is a Wembley opportunity,” said the 44-year-old. “I have taken a team to Wembley twice and I love the place. It is a fantastic place to win a match – a great occasion and any club would love to go there and we are no different here at Preston.
“Alongside your league season I am a great believer that the cups can enhance what you are doing in the league. They give you a good opportunity to get a break and give you a different type of action and I am sure everyone at the Club would like to be a turning out for a Wembley final.
“It is right up there in terms of what we want to do and what we want to achieve and we will give it our very best shot tomorrow night.”
When the cards paired the north Lancashire club with PNE for the second year in a row at the same stage thoughts immediately wandered back to the summer game, where the home side came out on top in a game remembered for a terrible foul on Lee Trundle that still keeps him on the sidelines and a number of other less than friendly tackles, something the manager admits will be at the forefront of his team’s mind on Tuesday night.
“That game is in our minds,” he continued. “There is no question that we went for a pre-season friendly and we didn’t get that, from the minute there was a very nasty challenge on Thorsten Stuckmann very early in the game. From our point of view, we relished the tie when it came our way.
“Saturday was another local game and we had a great following and we didn’t do enough for the fans who made the journey at the weekend.
“They were brilliant in their number, brilliant in their voice and we let them down big time in our performance and I don’t want the people of Preston supporting their team and feeling let down; we are going to change that at this football club and going to get back to people watching the team knowing they can expect a consistent level of winning performance. I can tell people they will watch a winning team. As time goes by and I get my claws right under the skin of the players, so they understand what the standard is, the fans will get a consistent level of winning performance.
“It doesn’t matter who we play. Everyone considers us a scalp. Everybody is upping their game and getting it to as good a level as they can get it too and increasing their intensity when we come to Town. We musn’t use that as a factor to disadvantage, we know we have to be at the top of our game in every match. We know we need players who are ready to go and beat that challenge and as we go forward we will have players in the right mindset to do just that.”