Preston North End

The North End No.2 was injured prior to the sides meeting in London, a match the O’s won 2-0 and with this Saturday’s contest coming with the visitors in another rich vein of form, Keane is expecting another battle for the three points.

“They are one of the top form sides in the league at the minute so we are expecting a very tough game,” said Keano.

“They are on a very good run of form so we are going to have to be at our best and I am sure that if we play as well as we can then we are more than a match for anyone in this league.”

He continued: “In any league if you get on a good run of form things just seem to happen for you and if you win three or four games on the bounce, then you can see yourself going from a mid-table team to being right up in the Play-Offs and if you are in the Play-Offs, you can see yourself hitting the automatic promotions.

“If you are able to just put three or four wins together, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you able to do that, you would be surprised at how far that can take you up the table quite quickly.

“I wasn’t at the game down there because I was injured, but from what I heard, I heard we had a lot of chances that day and we could have been about five-nil up at half-time, so we will treat it just like it is another game.

“We want to win it, we always want to win, get the three points, especially at home and we want to try and put in a good performance for the fans and try and make sure the fans go home happy on a Saturday afternoon.”

Keane played for the entirety of the second-half against Brentford on Saturday and he is eager to get further game time under his belt, whether that be at right back or in the centre of the park.

“It was good to play, added the 26-year-old.

“That is what I want to do, I love playing and I have missed a lot of football this season, so I want to play as much as I can until the end of the season, so whether it is 45 minutes, 90 minutes, 20 minutes, the more minutes the better.

“I always enjoy it when I play in centre midfield, it didn’t really feel much difference to me, I have played there a lot, I have played right back a lot, so either of the two comes pretty naturally to me, but yeah I enjoyed playing there.”

With North End’s unbeaten run halted at Griffin Park, Keane and his teammates are eager to get back to winning wins, as they aim for three straight victories at Deepdale, a return home everyone is looking forward to.

“Everyone loves playing at home and I enjoy playing at Deepdale so I am looking forward to it,” explained Keane.

“We have been on a decent run lately and we have put in better performances than we did at Brentford, but I still think we could have easily come away from that with a draw, away, at one of the top of the table teams, so yeah we were gutted that we couldn’t see it out, but hopefully we can put that right on Saturday and get another three points.”

Matchday tickets are available now, with fans advised to get their tickets in advance where possible for the clash with Leyton Orient.