Preston North End midfielder Ben Pearson says that the squad has confidence in their own abilities as they look to extend their unbeaten run this weekend.
Speaking to iFollow PNE ahead of the long trip to face Ipswich Town, the North End No.4 explained that even during the difficult run of results at the start of the campaign, the group were confident that things would change around.
“I don’t think there was any nervousness or doubts; everyone knows the quality that we have in the squad and what we can do,” said Ben.
“It was a case of taking out those little mistakes and starting punishing teams – which we have been doing. We still have plenty of areas we can improve on; we have been conceding too many goals, but I think over the past three or four weeks, we have picked up and we have to continue that.
“Over the past few weeks we have had close to a fully fit squad, other than Josh Harrop and Billy Bodin, so everyone is fighting for their place, which is only positive for the squad and the manager when it comes to selection.”
And with a good run now underway, the team is looking to push on from that: “We have set a target amongst ourselves for the next six to eight games,” continued the former Manchester United man.
“They are crucial to push ourselves up the league.
“We have managed to go five unbeaten now, which is a positive, from where we were at, but we are looking forward to the away games – we need to start picking up our away form and hopefully we can do that in the next couple of weeks.
“We needed to pick up results to stop us getting in any danger. We have picked up a little bit; we would obviously have liked some of our draws to be wins, but Ipswich and then Bristol City are games where we are looking to pick up as many points as we can.”
The game at Portman Road comes the same time as last year’s clash with the Blues, one Pearson remembers well and is desperate to banish the memory of.
“Games against them last year we struggled in. Their style then probably didn’t suit how we like to play – a little bit like Rotherham at the weekend – but with the change of manager, they will probably change their style a little bit and hopefully that will benefit us and we can right those wrongs.
“We will know what to expect and we have to do better than we did last year.
“Last year was disappointing; we were going through a bad injury stage at that point in time, so we will be looking to do a lot better this year,” he added.
You can watch the full interview with Ben by clicking on the video at the top of the page, without the need for subscription or registration.