Tom Barkhuizen is hopeful today’s performance and victory against Luton Town can be the catalyst for PNE to put together a good run of form.
The Lilywhites came out 2-0 victors against Nathan Jones’ Luton, who sat fifth on arrival at Deepdale, thanks to two goals from Emil Riis.
Barkhuizen started for just the third time in the Championship this season, given his battle with Covid, and admitted he enjoyed his afternoon’s work.
“I think when you win you naturally enjoy the game,” he told iFollow PNE. “I thought we were on the front foot for the majority [of the game].
“We started a little bit shaky but we got the job done and we were solid. I think they only one shot, maybe two shots, and we were a threat going forward.
“Obviously Emil scored another two which is good for him and let’s see what we can do. Let’s see if we can put a bit of a run together because we haven’t done that all season. It’ll be nice to get back-to-back wins.”
North End opened the scoring in quite spectacular fashion, with Riis thundering the ball home from a tight angle outside the box, when it looked for anything like he was readying to cross.
Barky wasn’t too sure that he intended it to power into the far corner, but didn’t care as it ultimately gave the home side the lead.
He laughed: “It’s definitely a cross! If he’s meant that then fair play, but we’ll take anything.
“I don’t think we’ve gone ahead in many games this season so as I said we were a little bit shaky at the start.
“But we’ll take everything we can get at the moment and it’s flown in the top corner somehow and I’ll take the assist, so nice on Emil.”
He later added: “It’s an unbelievable strike whether it was a cross or shot, it doesn’t really matter because it’s gone in and we take it.
“Then it was just about staying aggressive, not reverting to trying to hoof the ball which is what we said at half-time, we need to keep trying to play and that’s how the second goal comes.
“We spent about five minutes just banging the ball and we didn’t really want to play out, and it was like ‘no come on, we’re getting joy playing, we’re getting joy when we pass the ball'.
"And that’s how we get the second goal. Ali [McCann] makes a great run down the side, I slip him in and we get the penalty and Emil puts it away.”
Next up for the Lilywhites is a trip to AFC Bournemouth, who – as of the full-time whistle at Deepdale – remain unbeaten in the Championship.
Asked if this victory could give them confidence heading into that game, Barky said: “Naturally you hope it can be a catalyst for a few good results.
“We know Wednesday’s going to be an unbelievably tough game. I don’t think they’ve lost all season, but we went there last year and won 3-2 so I think we’ve got every right to be confident after today’s performance.
“Not just the result, but the performance for the majority of the game was good and that’s what we’ve been lacking as has been said. Hopefully now we can turn a corner and we can keep going.”
Hear more from Barky in his full interview above.