A trip to Reading at the weekend will bring back good memories for striker Emil Riis, having scored his first goal for the club against the Royals last season.
After joining from Danish club Randers in October, the forward featured six times without a goal before the trip to Berkshire, but the performances were certainly still there.
He got off the mark, though, at the then-named Madejski Stadium – now known as the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
Emil said: “Obviously that’s where I scored my first goal for Preston so [I will have] some good memories going back. It was probably the best half I’ve played for Preston that second half.
“We beat them 3-0 and it was a great win. I scored a goal and got a penalty as well, so for me it was a game I won’t forget.
“I’d been trying to get a goal for a long time so when it finally came against Reading, I was just pleased to finally get a goal.
“We played them later on in the season as well and it’s been almost a year now, obviously it’s a new game and both teams have new players. There’s a lot of differences. Obviously we know we can beat them but we just have to focus on the game.”
PNE’s No.19 heads into the weekend’s encounter fresh from scoring twice in two games, the first coming in the opening game of the season against Hull City, and then the second off the bench in the Carabao Cup first round victory at Mansfield Town.
Both those games were spent playing in front of the North End fans, who Emil has previously not had the chance to play in front of in a competitive fixture.
Emil said: “It was nice to score in front of them [at Deepdale]. Unfortunately it was in front of the Hull fans, but it was great to score at Deepdale with all the fans there so I’m really happy.
“They were loud and when I scored they got really loud. I don’t know if I was surprised but it was decent to score.
“It was nice to score in front of them [against Mansfield]. We played away on a Tuesday so I didn’t expect that many fans to come so it was good to see that many come to support us.
“I scored after four minutes so it’s great to come on and score straight away, and it kind of put the game away to bed so it was good to score. I think after we got the second goal, we got more confident, we kept the ball more and we scored the goal to get to 3-0 and maybe could have scored a few more actually as well.”
While admitting the goals have helped his confidence levels, Emil admitted that the mood of the group on the whole was massively helped by the midweek victory following the disappointment of the opening game of the season.
“I think after the Hull game we were really down,” he added. “All of us were disappointed. On Sunday and Monday we were talking a lot about that game, but I think the win against Mansfield changed the mood and we all came together as a group again and we’re now trying to look forward to the Reading game and hopefully do everything we can to get a win.”