Manager Simon Grayson has issued a ‘we need you’ rallying cry to supporters ahead of the Play-Off semi-final second leg against Chesterfield at Deepdale on Sunday lunchtime.
The North End boss has called for a repeat of the wall of noise created against Swindon Town a fortnight ago, when 17,000 North End fans packed into the ground.
Speaking ahead of the visit of the Spireites he said: “We need a full Deepdale. It was a fantastic atmosphere at Chesterfield on Thursday and you could see how the players responded to the home fans and that will be the same at the weekend.
“If we can touch the 17,000 mark again like we did against Swindon, then that would make for a fantastic atmosphere.
“When Deepdale is rocking it creates a fantastic noise, as we have seen already this season. It is a good place to play and it can make a huge difference and really spur everybody on.”
It will be a case of rest and recuperate for the squad ahead of the 12.15pm kick-off on Sunday, with very little time for anything else.
“We won’t do a great deal of training before Sunday,” continued the gaffer. “They will recover on Friday; we will do a light session on Saturday and then go again on Sunday – it is quite a quick turnaround.
“We will recover physically, mentally and try and be as fresh as we can do to try and finish off the job we started with the result on Thursday.
“We have to show the same sort of discipline, work rate and effort that we showed on Thursday night, with a little but more of the ball. I saw Paul Cook say the next goal is vitally important and I agree with him.”
The slender margin of the victory in the first leg left North End knowing that anything other than defeat will give them a place at Wembley, however, the boss is not contemplating anything other than going all out for victory.
“We won’t approach the game where a draw is enough. We would rather have a one goal advantage in the game than the other way round and the most important thing in any two-legged game is to still be in the tie in the second leg.
“We have given ourselves the advantage and the next goal is important. If we can get it, it is a massive boost for us, but we will certainly be going out to win the game,” he added.