Shot stopper Chris Maxwell is confident that North End have the quality and mental strength to turn things around after this evening’s positive display against Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup.
The Lilywhites led the game twice tonight against a Middlesbrough side who are currently in the promotion places in the Championship, and although North End fell short on penalties, Maxi feels there are plenty of positives to take from tonight’s Carabao Cup clash.
“I think we’ve performed really, really well and I think it’s taken a fantastic strike from them to draw the game,” analysed the Welshman post-match.
“I’m not worried in the slightest about how things are at the moment and we’ve just proved that there because our performance was really good. It was enthusiastic and everybody was running around working hard and also the spells of quality we had just shows how good a team we are so it’s pleasing and the important thing is we now take it on to Saturday.
“We’ve been playing well in spells - the problem is - is that we’ve not had that slice of luck that maybe we would have had at a different point in the year. I’m a firm believer that everything evens out over the course of the year and as I said last season, every team has a bad patch.
“We had a bad spell around November time so hopefully it’s our bad patch out of the way and we can kick on. We’re a great, hardworking, honest group and with the gaffer taking training each day we’re desperate to turn things around and I think today was a stepping stone towards that.
“We’re looking forward to Saturday now, and the atmosphere was a lot better in that dressing room than it has been in recent weeks and we’re all looking forward to Saturday.”
It’s the second game in a row that Maxwell has made the starting XI having come back into the side during the 3-2 defeat to Sheffield United at the weekend and in his interview with iFollowPNE, the No. 22 spoke of his determination to retain his place in-between the sticks heading into the next run of fixtures.
“I’m feeling good,” he continued. “I said in the programme notes that you’re basing yourself on a ‘what if’ every week and you’ve got to prepare yourself right every week incase you play.
“Now that I’ve got the shirt, I’ve got no intention of letting it go and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I perform well for the team and for the group and stick some points on the board but also try and help the younger boys who may not have been in this situation before.
On Saturday's clash against West Brom, Maxi added: “We’re going to have to up our game as they have some quality players but if we perform like that then we shouldn’t be far off.”
Watch Chris Maxwell's post-match video on iFollowPNE now.