After a frustrating spell battling with injury prior to Christmas, centre half Ben Davies believes he is getting back to full fitness.
Speaking to iFollow PNE at the club’s Springfields training ground, as the team began their preparations for the shirt trip to Wigan Athletic at the weekend, the North End No.6 said the recent run of games had done him good.
“I am getting there,” said the Barrow-born defender. “Coming back and playing four games in quick succession has helped; it has got my fitness back quicker.
“I am starting to feel more like it and hopefully I can continue to improve.”
Looking back to the weekend’s point against Swansea City, the Academy graduate felt the side deserved at least the point they came away with and admitted to also being pleased for goalscorer Scott Sinclair.
“In the second half we were a lot better than the first; we had a lot more play in their half of the pitch and you always remember how you finish a game more than how you start it and I thought we finished quite well, so at least a point was fair and perhaps even more,” he continued.
“It [Scott’s goal] was brilliant. He is obviously capable of that and it is great to have players like that in your team who can take it on, beat a man and then put the ball in the corner.
“At Deepdale, where teams have a habit of coming and sitting in, it is good to have that quality to unlock them and I was delighted for him; it looked like it meant a lot for him and hopefully there is many more to come.”
The Swans stale-mate was the first of seven games in a busy February calendar and Ben says it could be a critical period: “This is a busy month. It is critical we are focused and we have put a little bit of form together now and we have a big game to look forward to at the weekend.
“Hopefully we can carry on this form and pick up from what we have been going – we have had two wins and two draws from the last two and so we have given ourselves a foundation from which we can kick on.
“It is a local derby and since the manager has come in, we have done well in the derbies and hopefully we can go there and put our stamp on the game, continue this form and get the result for the fans.
“The home form has been strong all season, but the away form has been a bit up and down. We have had a few good results, but overall it needed to improve. We have put a few results together and hopefully we can get a bit of a tally out of the two away games we have coming up.”
The weekend’s 12.30pm kick-off is in front of the Sky TV cameras and Ben is hoping the short trip down the M6 will see a big following of North End fans getting behind their team.
“All the local ones are good for the fans; we always seem to take a really good following. We are looking forward to playing in front of them.
“The last time we went there, we got beaten, so hopefully this time we can get a positive result and send them home happy.
“We are maturing as a group and are used to playing on Sky. We can just go out and play our normal game; we are looking forward to it and hopefully we can go and play as well as we know we can,” he added.