Greg Cunningham says PNE cannot afford to take Cheltenham Town for granted tomorrow evening in their Carabao Cup third round tie.
The Lilywhites welcome the League One opposition to Deepdale on Tuesday as the sides battle for a place in the last 16 of the competition.
Cheltenham, managed by Michael Duff, won the League Two title last season and have made a strong start to life in the third tier, so will no doubt give PNE a tough test.
“You can’t take teams for granted,” said Greg. “Cheltenham are on the back of winning the league last year, they’ve had a very good start to life in League One so they’ll be very confident.
“They’ll be coming here on the back of being unbeaten in four and the last two wins, so confidence will be flying for them and it’ll be a challenging game for us and one we’re taking very seriously.”
North End will be feeling in a positive mood themselves, though, going six games unbeaten heading into Tuesday night’s game.
Greg himself will be hoping to be involved, having not featured since the last round in the competition in the away win over Morecambe.
“Football’s all about momentum,” admitted the left back. “It’s important to keep winning games and make it a habit, so we’re really looking forward to the game. It’s another chance at home to put in a good display and hopefully get through to the next round of the cup.
“It’s a good opportunity for the boys to get games. We want to put on a good show for ourselves and keep our unbeaten run going at the minute.
“We know we had a slow start to the season but we’ve really picked up and we want to keep that going and that starts with Cheltenham tomorrow.
“It’s important to take one game at a time and see where it takes us.”
That victory over Morecambe in the last round proved to be a highly entertaining encounter, with the Shrimps coming back from two down before North End took the game away from them to come out 4-2 winners.
Greg played the full 90 minutes that evening and assisted the final goal, crossing for Sepp van den Berg to tap home right in front of the travelling supporters in the sold out away end.
Greg said: “It was pretty much a full house wasn’t it? Both sets of fans were incredible, I thought it was lively.
“It’s what football’s about, it’s what we’ve been missing over the past 18 months so it’s great to get fans back in at games again and get life back into football.
“It was Sepp’s first goal so I was just delighted for him. He’s been incredible since he’s come to the club, we’re delighted to get him for the season and he just shows every game he’s going from strength to strength.
“So I was delighted for him to get his first professional goal because with all the work he’s put in he deserves it.”