Preston North End midfielder Paul Gallagher will come up against a former employer if he is selected to face Stoke City at Deepdale this weekend.
The North End No.12 spent two spells at the Bet365 Stadium and remembers them well, especially the latter one, as he was part of the side that gained promotion to the Premier League for the first time.
“I had some really good times at Stoke,” Gally recalled when looking ahead to the game with iFollow PNE. “Firstly, I went there under Mr Boskamp, who was from Belgium and who played a really good style of football, I went there to go and enjoy my football and then I went back two years later and got promoted to the Premier League.
“So, I have some good memories there, met some good people and I am looking forward to the game.
“These are the kind of games you want to challenge yourself in. We played Swansea last week, who have come down from the Premier League and this is another team who have just come out of the Premier League, invested in their squad really well, but it will be about how you do the on the day.
“I don’t think they have started too well, and it might take a bit of time to adjust to playing Saturday-Tuesday for some of the players who have played all their careers in the Premier League.
“But it is a game we should go into with confidence; you have to give them respect, but when you cross that white line, you really want to get those three points.”
North End have started the season brightly in PR1, winning the two games they have played thus far, and the Blackburn-born midfielder feels this can be important in 2018/19.
“This season we want to make our home form a lot better than last year; we started that well, winning our first game and we want to keep that going,” he continued.
“We want to get some momentum; get that home form going.
“Last season we had a really good away form and our home form dipped, but if we can try and even that out, then we can have a really good season.”
The Potters’ last win at Deepdale was in 2005 and the only goal of the game came from one Paul Gallagher, but this time round he only wants one winner.
“It was one of my first games for Stoke, I think Carlo Nash might have been in goal, Bruce Dyer might have squared it and I managed to score.
“That is many moons ago, but now I just want to go out there and get the points for Preston North End.
“The manager will do his homework on their team; we will sit down and see how we can break them down. They will have a lot of strengths, but have weaknesses we can work on.
“The manager here breaks it down into detail on how you can get a head start and ultimately it is about the players who go out there on the pitch, be confident and try and keep that winning feeling,” he added.
To watch the full interview with Gally click on the video at the top of the page – all our iFollow interviews are free to watch, without the need for subscription.