Daryl Horgan has praised the strength in depth of the squad ahead of Saturday's visit of Sunderland.
Horgan was a second half substitute against Hull City on Saturday, and set up the winner for fellow substitute Callum Robinson and the KCOM Stadium.
The impact from those coming off the bench shows the quality manager Alex Neil has at his disposal, and Horgan is hoping to have put himself in the manager's thoughts on Tuesday night.
On his season so far, the 25-year-old said: "I won't lie, it's been frustrating for me personally, the team is doing well and no-one wants to be sitting on the bench but unfortunately that's the way it's gone for me but we are going well.
"If an opportunity does come then I will take it and I suppose the best thing you can do is set up a chance but my overall game has to improve anyway but I will take a bit of confidence from that and hopefully it's in the manager's thoughts now that he can throw me in maybe but we will see.
"There's such a strong squad now, there's seven on the bench and then there's a few who aren't even on the bench who could step in and play comfortably as well as three or four lads who are injured so the strength in depth is there.
"I think we are looking very, very strong, the manager can make the changes he needs to make and if he feels he wants to throw anyone in we know as a team that they will be more than able to make the step up and be comfortable at that level."
Saturday sees the return of former PNE boss Simon Grayson but Daryl will be treating the game just like any other.
"It's the same in every game, you can't be thinking about their manager, you just have to worry about your own manager and your own team.
"We will sit down and have a look what we are going to do and how we are going to do it and I'm sure the manager will have a plan for how to play against Sunderland.
"We'll be well ready for the game and we will be going out to try and get three points and that's the key for every game this season.
"They've been on a poor run of late I suppose, they will be all hands to the ground to pick up points at this stage but it's important for us to win the game.
"It's a big game for us, we want to keep ourselves in that top six and the only way to do that is to keep winning games.
After Saturday's game, Horgan will head away for international duty if he's selected in Martin O'Neill's final Republic of Ireland squad after making the 32-man squad earlier this week.
On the upcoming games for his national side, the winger said: "Hopefully I will be in the final squad, for Ireland it's huge. Hopefully we can pick up a result against Moldova and then go down to the game against Wales, even if you win that then you have to have a bit of luck because the ninth second place team doesn't qualify, so that would be a tough one to take.
"First and foremost you have to finish second so Moldova and Wales are the games you need to win and I think there's enough in the squad to do that.
"There's been big games before I came in and they've pulled results out of the bag and we'll probably have to tap into that spirit again and fingers crossed."
Hear more from Daryl now on iFollow PNE by clicking on the video below.