With the trip to Queens Park Rangers this weekend marking a seventh game in 22 days, Frankie McAvoy is looking at freshening up his side.
For the majority of that busy schedule, the Preston North End head coach has gone unchanged, but he feels Saturday’s 3pm kick-off in Shepherd’s Bush could be the right time to make more changes.
“We probably will do,” said Frankie when asked if he would be looking to swap personnel. “We were in the thought process of maybe doing it the other night [against Stoke] if I’m being brutally honest as well because there’s been a lot of games, but other teams are the exact same.
“I went to watch Derby play Reading last night and Reading were fielding a team that had something like six or seven players that were out through injury, through one thing or another, so the same thing’s happening for each of the teams.
“We’ve all got the same schedule that we need to adhere to and work to, and to be fair in the main the guys who have played the main stint of games have done really well for us, but there might be an opportunity and a chance to be looking to freshen it up on Saturday.”
Greg Cunningham came in as the only change in the midweek draw against Stoke, replacing the injured Andrew Hughes, but the boss is hoping to have the Welsh defender back available on Saturday.
Their opposition, QPR, currently sit eighth in the Championship and got their first league win in five matches on Tuesday night against Birmingham, however Frankie feels they still looked good in the winless games.
He said: “Against Bristol City they lost in the last few minutes, but they were excellent to be honest, and I was at the West Brom game where they conceded the two late goals and to be fair they did very well against West Brom.
“They’re at home and they’re in good fettle. Mark [Warburton] is an excellent manager, he’s been in the Championship many times and done really well. He did really well when he moved up to Scotland at Rangers so I’ve nothing but the utmost respect for him, a really nice man as well, and it’ll be nothing but a difficult game again on Saturday.”
North End themselves go into the game after taking five points from as many matches, having drawn each league encounter in that run, and that forms part of a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
“We’re unbeaten, what we need to try and do is turn those draws into wins and hopefully that starts on Saturday,” added Frankie.
“The players then have the international break coming up. It gives some the chance to go away with their countries and for others it gives them a bit of a rest, and others to get them up to speed for the next challenging period which comes just after that, so we’re in a good enough fettle.
“What we need to do is just keep our feet firmly on the ground, prepare ourselves as best as we can, give QPR every respect they’re due and go and try and win the game.”
Hear more from Frankie on iFollow PNE.