Assistant manager Glynn Snodin looked ahead to the weekend’s visit of Bristol City to Deepdale and said the dressing room wants a home win for the fans.
The Lilywhites have been in fabulous form away from Deepdale, but want to further cement their third position in the league against managerless Bristol City this weekend.
North End have only lost one game at home all season, but have drawn five, and are looking to add to their four consecutive away victories.
“It is frustrating for us,” admitted the assistant boss. “The fans have been brilliant – they were different class the other night – and we want to make Deepdale a fortress and that is up to us to perform on the day.
“We have to create the same amount of chances, put as many crosses in, as we did against Colchester; we want more of that – if we do that, then we will win more games.
“If we can get a two goal cushion in a game, rather than one, then everyone will relax and that’s when they can go and try even more things and get three or four goals.”
The preparations for the game against the Robins began in earnest at training on Thursday morning, however, they were being done without full knowledge of who would be available.
“We hope to get things sorted out quickly, so we know how to prepare,” continued Glynn, when asked about the situation with Joe Garner. “Things can’t drag on; we want to prepare our team and we don’t know at the moment who will be involved.
“The lads put in a great shift and we will need to do some recovery work for some and something different for the others.”
The opposition may have made a strange decision to change manager, having only lost one in seven and just taken a point from the league leaders, but the former Leeds and Huddersfield No.2 thinks the test will be a tough one.
“It’s a good squad they have put together. It’s a Championship squad.
“It will be a difficult game; we have to make sure we take the game to them, like we did last weekend and hopefully we will earn the three points.
“We don’t fear anybody. We respect them, but we feel we have a squad that can beat anyone in the division and we want to show everyone on Saturday what we are capable of.”
And having gained their highest position of the season, moving into the top three with Tuesday’s ten man triumph, the aim for the squad and the staff is clear: “We are here to get promotion.
“We set high standards; in training, discipline off the field and we are striving towards where we want to go.
“We are not going to get carried away; we will keep our feet on the ground and not get disappointed when we lose one. We will make sure we work hard every week to try and get to where we want to be.
“We know about our players now – we are a strong squad, no matter who we play in the team, they are all fighting for their shirt and want to keep it when they have it, because they know there is someone behind them waiting to take their place.
“They all want promotion themselves and we are fighting to attain it,” added Snodin.