Paul Gallagher has been looking towards Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie with Accrington Stanley and believes there is a different perspective compared to the friendly game last month.
PNE got off to the perfect start in the Championship this season with a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Deepdale on Saturday; but the midfielder is wary of a response from Stanley who were beaten 3-2 by North End in pre-season.
Speaking to iFollow PNE he said: “Friendly games are there to get fit, obviously you want to win them but when it’s a cup game there’s a different perspective on the game.
“They’ll be looking to come back and win and we want to go as far as we can, players will probably play who haven’t really played much so it’s good to get minutes in the legs and get up to speed.
“You’ve got to get through the trickier ties first, there will be upsets but we don’t want to be on the end of one of them, we want to try and go as far as we can. We have had some terrific cup ties at Deepdale and the crowds have come out for them and we’ll try to achieve that again.
“There could be a few tackles going in but that’s natural in a derby but we want to stamp our authority on games and go and win and get into the next round. You can see on Saturday that we had a great atmosphere and a great crowd and it pushes the lads forward.”
The home fans came in their numbers to Deepdale on Saturday, pushing the team to victory and Gally believed that the condition and desire of the squad also played a part in the win.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, Sheffield Wednesday are one of the favourites to go up, having been in the play offs for the last two seasons, but that didn’t faze us. You could see on Saturday, the desire and the hunger to go and try and win a game - I thought we deserved to win the game.
“We were putting pressure on them and I could see in the Sheffield Wednesday lads they were tiring and we were getting stronger. The last five minutes there were long balls coming in, they were taking risks but we dealt with it really well. The experienced lads on the pitch knew how to see the game out – we just let the game fizzle out.”
Gallagher was a second half substitute for debutant Sean Maguire and owed his thanks to manager Alex Neil for his inclusion despite limited playing time in the lead-up to the clash – he felt that all the players involved on Saturday made a difference.
“I came back from pre-season feeling pretty strong, feeling good – them I pick up a little injury and it sets me back a few weeks, playing catch up. Fair play to the manager for putting me on, I’ve only probably played two 45 minutes in pre-season.
“I’ve come back training and tried to build on my fitness. When I got the nod to come on I was like a young kid again to get back out there, I think everyone who played and were involved made an impact. Jordan came on and you could see the handful he was and he won the penalty.”
Watch the full interview with Paul Gallagher on iFollow now by clicking on the video above.