“It’s out game that dictates the terms, especially at home, but wherever we play we need to be dictating the terms of the game.”
Those were the thoughts of manager Graham Westley as he spoke to the press ahead of the visit of Shrewsbury Town to Deepdale this weekend and said that he would be instilling in his players’ the need to impose their own game on the opposition, rather than worry too much about what the visitors do.
The North End boss is looking for his team to play their own game and show what they are capable of in front of an expectant home crowd.
“We’ve got to get into the frame of mind where we play our game,” he continued. “We’re going to pick a side for the game, who we think can do the job and win.
“We want to be renowned for being a side that plays on the front foot. We want to be renowned for being a side that passes the football forward through the thirds of the pitch, that’s got purpose in its play and scores goals with conviction.
“We’ve scored some cracking goals this season. When we’ve been at our best, we’ve played some good football and we’ve had some devastating clinicality at the end of our play. We’ve been good, we just need to remember how good we can be and keep that with us on a sustained basis.”
The manager should have Paul Connolly and Lee Holmes available; the two having been major doubts had Tuesday’s trip to Crawley gone ahead, however, there was not such good news for Lee Trundle, who has suffered a further set back in his efforts to get fit.
“Lee’s struggling,” continued the PNE chief. “He had a hamstring injury which I think in part was due to the fact that he had been out so long with the knee injury. He’s now got a little foreign body which is floating around in his ankle which is causing him problems, so he is struggling to say the least.
“There are one or two issues there that don’t look like they’re going to cure themselves anytime soon. We’re worried about him, there’s no hiding that.
“In Keith Keane’s case he’s going to come back into training early next week. That’s going to be light and we’re going to have to be very gradual with him and how we bring him back in, and it’s going to be two or three weeks before we’ll be able to get him back in full training.
“But, we are looking forward to having him back with us.”