Preston North End boss Alex Neil is looking for his side to continue their excellent away form from 2017/18 into the new season, starting at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.
The Lilywhites boss spoke to iFollow PNE ahead of his side’s trip to South Wales and expects a tough start for their on the road campaign against a side who have only just joined the division and with a coach he knows well.
“They have got good players,” said the gaffer of his side’s first away day opponents. “Any team coming down from the Premier League is going to have good players.
“What we need to do is to make sure we go and impose ourselves on them and basically show them how good a team we are.
“Sometimes that change has to come from the players. Graham [Potter] will come with his ideas and will want to implement that as soon as he can and he has had a good start winning his first game.
“He has had an unbelievable record with Ostersunds and what he achieved there, so they have someone who knows what he is doing.
“Billy Reid is there as well, who I worked with at Hamilton. Billy is a great coach and a great guy as well.
“They are in great hands and I am sure they will want the players to take a bit of ownership. Their momentum now needs to be in a forward direction, rather than a negative one.”
The manager has been up and down the country this week, taking in a number of Championship games lives and he feels it is important to make sure he is aware of how his opponents have evolved since last season.
“Every team does business in the window; you have teams that come down and other teams that come up, so it is always different year on year,” he continued.
“I have managed to take in three games in three days, so that is six games covered and we have managed to watch two other live games, so we have almost covered half the league and we are only in the first week, so we have made a good start in terms of seeing everybody.”
Last season only promoted Wolves and Fulham gained more points away from home and the PNE chief wants to see that continue, whilst improving the haul at Deepdale as well.
“We need to try and continue our away form and improve our home form. That is something we have talked about and we are conscious of. I think we have found a good solution away from home and our focus has been on home of late.
“What tends to happen is that if you are good on the road the numbers following you tend to swell, because you don’t want to travel 200 miles and then end up getting beaten every week.
“We have been in good form away from home and I would expect and hope that continues this year and the away fans can continue their backing and we will do the best that we can,” he added.