Keith Keane joked that Chris Humphrey can keep PNE’s opening goal against Oldham Athletic as it wasn’t good enough to be one of his own!
The midfielder was in jovial mood as he and his team-mates looked forward to Tuesday’s trip to Stevenage, but before getting down to the serious business of discussing that match, Keane was asked to clarify Saturday’s opener.
“To be fair to Humph, he done very well and I thought he had a very good game,” started the PNE No.2.
“He does that a lot in training, he comes inside and shoots on his left, I don’t understand why he doesn’t do it more in games, he obviously done it on Saturday and he got a goal so happy days.
“The shot came off me but he can have it, it doesn’t bother me at the end of the day, I have just been trying to wind him up!
“If he wants it he can have it, I don’t score many anyway, that would be low down the pile of the goals that I score anyway, I don’t think I want to take that one, mine are usually better!”
Focus quickly sharpened to the latest challenge ahead of the Lilywhites, a difficult match against in-form Stevenage who have an unprecedented six wins from six home Tuesday night games this season.
But Keane is only interested in what Preston do come Tuesday night.
“At the minute, every single game is a big game,” continued the stand in captain.
“We don’t want to be dropping points then seeing that other teams might have dropped points and that would be an even bigger kick in the teeth.
“We just have to concentrate on ourselves, make sure that we do the business at our end and if other teams slip up, they do and if not, we will just keep going.
“Stevenage at home on a Tuesday night, it is a very tough place to go.
“I’m sure he will have them very up for the match against us with it being his old Club and everything.
“It is going to be a very tough test, make no doubts about it, but we know what we are in for and we are going to make sure we are ready.
“We are prepared to grind out results.
“We’d rather be playing the pretty football and going forward and everything, but when you start a match, you have to earn the right to play that kind of football.
“So first of all you need to put the effort in, you have to match them and then hopefully it will get to the stage in the match where you can get the ball down, keep playing and try and score a goal.
“But if needs be, like we have shown, if it needs grinding out, we will put in a team effort and do whatever it takes.
“It is just about making sure you are recovering right, eating right, drinking right, resting right, making sure that you are as fresh as you can possibly be for the game, but mainly it is all just about recovering, getting the legs ticking over again and making sure you are in the best shape possible for the game.
“We will probably go through a few things of how they like to play and stuff like that, but since the manager has come in, every game we have gone into, it is mainly about what we do.
“With the group of players that we have, we know that if we play to our strengths and the best of our ability and how we know we can, we are pretty sure that the other team will be worrying about us more than we will be worrying about them.”
After Tuesday’s match, North End have a rare weekend off before facing Sheff Utd live on Sky on Monday night.
So this clash at Broadhall Way is a chance for Preston to assert just a little bit of additional pressure with a positive result, on the three sides directly above them ahead of their Saturday fixtures
“That may be the case; other teams might look at it like that,” said Keane when asked about that theory.
“I don’t think we would, but I’m pretty sure some teams will look at it like that.
“If we can put a bit of pressure on the other teams then great, if anything, that is another incentive for us to make sure we do the business tomorrow night, so hopefully we can do that.”