North End boss Simon Grayson is looking forward to the visit of fifth-placed Rotherham United and expects a tough game.
The Lilywhites’ gaffer spoke to the media after training on Monday and admitted he had been impressed by the Millers so far this season.
“They’ve had a really good season,” he said. “You always get a couple of teams who come up and carry the momentum from that forward. Sometimes they can slip away, but more often than not, one stays with it; I have seen it many times in the divisions and they have done that.
“They are a strong and powerful unit, they added well in the transfer window in January and they have a manager who demands a lot from his team. We have a really tough game.”
Having scored some late winners in recent weeks he also stated that his side would be reminded of their responsibilities for the full 90 minutes plus: “They keep going to the end. They won in the last minute on Saturday and the week before they won in the last two or three minutes, so it’s a tough game,” he continued.
“We need to implement our own ideas on the game and if we do that, we have a chance of winning it.
“We always remind the players to keep their focus, most notably in the last bit of the game, when teams tend to throw bodies forward in an attempt to get things out of a game.”
The visiting manager has had a lot of success in the game and Simon spoke of his passion for the game: “I have only come up against Steve Evans once before, earlier this season. He’s a lively character, fanatical and passionate about football and I’m sure he’ll have his team ready for the game.
“They are a really strong, hard-working team, with a lot of goals in the team. They have Agard down the right hand side, who has 16 goals, whilst Revell is a handful up front. They have added well in the January window, so they have some good players and this is going to be a tough game for us.”
And to get the right result, the manager is hoping for a large and vocal support from the terraces: “We are trying our best to get a good crowd in. The support we’ve had has been fantastic all season.
“The away following and the numbers we have taken away have been outstanding. We would love to have 14 or 15,000 every week, but it is a difficult time for people money wise.
“We want people to come down and support the team and help us to try and achieve what we all want us to achieve.”