We have two former team-mates and friends featured in our interviews in Tuesday night’s matchday programme.
North End goalkeeper Chris Maxwell is the cover star and having returned to the starting line-up at Sheffield United at the weekend, he explained the difficulty of being a goalkeeper when only one of you can be involved.
“I am very lucky that since the age of 18 I have been pretty much a first choice throughout my career, I have a number of games under my belt and I am waiting for the opportunity to add to it,” he told The One And Only.
“Declan Rudd is a friend and a team-mate, I know it’s not a personal thing, it’s a team thing. It’s not about me, it’s not about a certain individual, it’s about a collective and I am equally the first one to be disappointed if we lose a game, equally I am right up there celebrating if we score a goal. The boys look after each other and, as has been said many times, we are a close-knit group.
“We all stick up for each other and if my mate plays instead of me, then it’s beneficial for the team in the manager’s eyes.
“You have to look across the board and some of the best friends in the dressing room are playing in the same position, they room with each other, it’s not a personal thing if one gets chosen ahead of the other. We all want to win and be successful together.”
Meanwhile his former team-mate Jordan Hugill also speaks to this £2 Carabao Cup edition of the programme and is looking forward to his first playing return to Deepdale since his January move to West Ham United.
“I’d like to think this will be a proper chance to thank the supporters and say goodbye properly,” he said ahead of the game. “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to many people in January because it all came around so quickly.
“I don’t want to just go off without showing my appreciation to everyone and hopefully this will give me the chance to do it and hopefully I get a good reception!”
His return, he admits, will be quite an odd experience and he has already been trying to make sure he comes out unscathed from any clashes with his former skipper: “There’ll always be a place for Preston in my heart now.
“When the fixtures are coming up, I always look for the results to see how they are doing and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. I’ve got a lot of friends at the club and I am looking forward to seeing everyone, particularly the players, so I am looking forward to it.
“It will be quite strange. I have had chats with Clarkey already to say ‘please don’t headbutt me’! It is going to be one of those situations where I am going to have to distance myself to the attachments that I have got with everything and make sure I am fully focused on my own task.
“It will be strange to go into the away dressing room, turning the complete wrong way in the corridor, so it will be strange, but I am looking forward to it.”
There’s also plenty of other content in the 32-page edition of the match programme, available from Tuesday afternoon from the club’s Sir Tom Finney ticket office or on the night both outside and inside the ground from our sales team – make sure you get yours.