Manager Simon Grayson is looking for his side to put together a full 90 minutes of a performance on Tuesday night against Derby County.
The North End boss spoke ahead of the Rams’ visit to PR1 and said that he had seen positive signs in the opening games, but that the team needed to put it together for a whole game, in order to get the right result.
“It is still early days and people are still finding their feet throughout every division,” he said. “People will say that no team has hit the ground running, even those who have win both games. We have to get a bit more consistency in our play – we played better in the second half at Reading and well in the second half against Fulham at the weekend and now we have to put it together for 90 minutes.
“If we can do that and get the first goal in games, it will give us a better opportunity to win games.
“We know there is room for improvement. Just because we have lost two games there is no panic; as someone pointed out, if you lose two games on the trot midway through the season, nobody mentions it, you do it at the start of the season and panic can set in.
“We are not panicking; I am sure Newcastle, Blackburn and Leeds, who are in a similar position, will be saying the same thing as well.”
The visitors themselves are in a similar boat, one point from the opening six available, however, the gaffer expects them to be right up there come the end of the season.
“I bet there are no panic stations at Derby because they only have one point.
“They have a strong group of players that they had last season; they have a new manager, who has a wealth of experience of getting out of this division, so they will be looking at the longer term rather than the short term.
“Nothing is won or lost on the first day of the season and that is the same on the second and the third. Ultimately every team wants to get off to a decent start as you don’t want to be playing too much catch up in terms of where you want to get to.”
One thing the PNE chief hopes to have, is a big squad to choose from, with only the long term injured set to be on the sidelines: “We look strong in certain areas of the park and have options available to us.
“We should have Simon Makienok back into training this week.
“He is probably 50/50 for Tuesday night, but for the QPR game he should definitely be available and that gives us another option as well,” he added.
“It is still early days and people are still finding their feet throughout every division,” he said. “People will say that no team has hit the ground running, even those who have win both games. We have to get a bit more consistency in our play – we played better in the second half at Reading and well in the second half against Fulham at the weekend and now we have to put it together for 90 minutes.
“If we can do that and get the first goal in games, it will give us a better opportunity to win games.
“We know there is room for improvement. Just because we have lost two games there is no panic; as someone pointed out, if you lose two games on the trot midway through the season, nobody mentions it, you do it at the start of the season and panic can set in.
“We are not panicking; I am sure Newcastle, Blackburn and Leeds, who are in a similar position, will be saying the same thing as well.”
The visitors themselves are in a similar boat, one point from the opening six available, however, the gaffer expects them to be right up there come the end of the season.
“I bet there are no panic stations at Derby because they only have one point.
“They have a strong group of players that they had last season; they have a new manager, who has a wealth of experience of getting out of this division, so they will be looking at the longer term rather than the short term.
“Nothing is won or lost on the first day of the season and that is the same on the second and the third. Ultimately every team wants to get off to a decent start as you don’t want to be playing too much catch up in terms of where you want to get to.”
One thing the PNE chief hopes to have, is a big squad to choose from, with only the long term injured set to be on the sidelines: “We look strong in certain areas of the park and have options available to us.
“We should have Simon Makienok back into training this week.
“He is probably 50/50 for Tuesday night, but for the QPR game he should definitely be available and that gives us another option as well,” he added.