Following victory against Gillingham on Saturday, Chris Humphrey believes that Tuesday’s match against Bradford City is now a ‘massive game’.
With both teams currently occupying Play-Off positions in Sky Bet League One, the North End winger is looking to kick on to put a chink of light between the Lilywhites and the Bantams following Saturday’s impressive performance in Kent.
In an exclusive interview with PNE.Com, Humphrey said: “Tuesday is a massive game again Bradford after the victory at the weekend.
“I think that made this game a pretty big one to be honest and if we can get the win that will put a little gap between us and them which is obviously nice.
“It is important to go out there and try and win this game.
“All the ingredients are definitely there for a top night.
“These are the ones you want to try and get yourself in the team to play in these games because the atmosphere should be good, two good teams, so there should be a lot of football played and they are a very good team.
“I’m looking forward to seeing if I am in the squad for tomorrow, we had a game Saturday so the gaffer might want to freshen things up as we have a game again on Saturday so we have to wait and see, but if I am selected then yes I’m looking forward to this game.”
With such a quick turnaround between Saturday and Tuesday, Humphrey placed the emphasis on his teammates and himself to prepare right for the game ahead, rather than getting too bogged down in what Bradford could bring to the table.
He added: “The gaffer might go through a few things today in training if he looked at them over the weekend but mainly when you have such a close game you don’t really train, you do what is best for you body wise and stuff so you spend most of your time with Adrian Lamb [fitness coach] to get your legs back, trying to get to as best as you can be for tomorrow night and that is the main thing for us, to do things right today.
“I know the boys are all good professionals here so they will have done their thing at the weekend and I’m sure we will go out tomorrow looking sharp.”
The visitors to Deepdale tomorrow have had a memorable 12 months with Play-Off promotion following on the back of an epic run in the Capital One Cup, a Club with many similarities to North End, as they both try and return to the glory days of previous years and a higher league standing.
“At the end of the day Bradford are a massive Club, they are like Preston,” continued the PNE No.7.
“They have got the stature to be higher than what they are, same as us and it is just one of they things.
“They are going to be pushing for promotion, as are we and as is everyone else in the league.
“It is a very good league and that is one of the main reasons why I came here because when you look at it, there are so many good teams in it.
“It is a real good challenge and on our day I think we can beat anyone if we play the way we can and I’m sure we will be going out tomorrow to do that.
“It was nice to get a win at the weekend to break those two defeats in the league and you want to lose as few games as possible in the league because you don’t want to worry about when that win is coming so it was good to get the win and now it is time to get a win on our turf and to get that barrier back down that this is a tough place to come.
“It would be nice to go on another unbeaten run at home.”