Liam Lindsay is anticipating a tough game against St Johnstone this evening, given their remarkable success last season.
The Saints, managed by former PNE defender Callum Davidson, won both domestic cup titles in Scotland in 2020/21 for the first time in club history.
The Lilywhites will face St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park for a 7pm kick-off as part of their training camp in Scotland.
Speaking to iFollow PNE, Liam said: “I've obviously just come back up to the homeland, playing some opposition that I’ve played already in my career.
“They’ll be tough opposition and it should be a good game for us to gauge where we are.
“Completely [their success was unexpected], but they deserved it, they were hard to beat.
“I’ve watched a few games, I watched the finals and they were hard to beat. It was good to see instead of the Old Firm winning everything and St Johnstone doing something, so all credit to them.”
After this evening’s game, PNE will then turn their preparations to the next fixture at the weekend, when they face Celtic at their 60,000-seater stadium.
Only 2,000 seats will be filled, though, but it’s a game that Liam is especially looking forward to given that the Bhoys were his childhood team.
“I used to go there when I had a season ticket as a wee boy,” he added.
“I’ve got good memories of the place. I’ve played there before and probably a couple of not-the-best results, but we got a draw as well which Scotty [Sinclair] played in as well so that’s a little link.
“I’m sure the 2,000 [fans] will make a lot of noise, but obviously you’d rather 60, but we’ll take two for now.”
Liam and his team-mates were due to see supporters last weekend in their opening game of pre-season against Bamber Bridge, but a waterlogged pitch meant the game was forced behind closed doors.
Liam said: “It’s been a long time, so I think everyone was gutted with that, but these things happen.
“We’ve all seen the pictures of the pitch and it didn’t look good, so I suppose it’s better to take safety.
“It was a good test and the next is 60 minutes, so we’ll see.”
You can watch Liam's full interview on iFollow at the top of this page.