Preston North End midfielder Josh Harrop says the Lilywhites are still trying to find their rhythm, but are getting closer as the first month comes to an end with a local derby at the weekend.
Speaking to iFollow PNE ahead of the visit of Phil Parkinson’s Bolton Wanderers, the former Manchester United man goes into the game having played a different role in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup game at Leeds.
The No.10 usually can be found in that role just behind the striker, but had to drop deeper after the early bath for Ryan Ledson, with manager Alex Neil joking afterwards that he had seen his player make more tackles in one night than in all his previous games!
“I actually enjoyed it quite a lot,” Josh said when asked about playing that deeper lying midfield role. “I have played that position a few games previously, just not here at Preston.
“It was a hard test against a good side, with ten men, but all the lads were excellent. Not one man on that pitch didn’t put 100 per cent in and we got a good result.
“They had some of their best players come on, but they couldn’t break us down. Everyone was working their socks off and sometimes when you go down to ten men, you work that extra ten per cent harder and you could see that on the night, everyone was working at 100 per cent and you could see that from everyone.
“The manager is probably not wrong about making the tackles!
“I did make a few and I knew what the role was when we went down to ten men, to defend and then break and attack and get as high up the pitch as we could when the opportunity was there.
“We tried to keep putting pressure on, because we knew we couldn’t just sit back and defend with the creativity that they had and we did it well and it worked perfectly on the night.”
Moving onto the current game and after that positive result, Josh believes that the weekend is a vital game to continue the progress that has been made.
“It is a big game for us,” he continued. “It is the last game before the international break. We want to get a win, get three points on the board and we will go to Deepdale in high spirits and hopefully we can get the win.
“They have added a few new players, but we have to go into the game, impose ourselves on them, work our hardest and try and get the result we want.”
And despite not getting the results some of their performances have thus far deserved, he believes that a win will make it a solid start to the new campaign.
“It has been a weird start to the season, because we have been performing well in games and then conceded, which has put us back a step.
“But we are just finding out rhythm. It is just early doors and everyone is working their hardest.
“We have not got some of the results that we probably could have, but we will only keep pushing to get better,” he added.