Ryan Lowe wants his players to go to Craven Cottage with a smile on their faces and start on the front foot against a Fulham team who could clinch promotion on the night.
PNE take on the Cottagers for a 7.45pm kick-off on Tuesday, an evening where Marco Silva’s side can confirm a spot in the Premier League with a victory.
In fact, they could even achieve that without playing on Monday, if results go their way, but Ryan wants North End to stay focused on their own goals.
He told iFollow PNE: “First and foremost, I’ll be the first one to congratulate them when they do get promoted or when they win the division because they’ve been outstanding I must say that.
“We can’t fear them. We’ve got to go there with a smile on our face and we’ve got our own objectives to try and claim as many points as we possibly can to try and finish as high as we possibly can, and if we can do that I’ll be pleased.”
For a while now, it has seemed a matter of when not if Fulham would be promoted, with the side from London dominating in the Championship all season.
Strong at the back but even more so at the other end of the pitch, they have been a huge threat all year long, signified by the 95 goals they’ve scored in league action.
Ryan added: “They have probably got the biggest budget and a fantastic manager who’s managed in the Premier League and in Europe.
“He’s got a good brand of football, and they’ve also got some fantastic players, let alone [Aleksandar] Mitrovic.
“But it’s not just Mitrovic, they’ve got Harry Wilson who’s a fantastic player, [Fabio] Carvalho, all the defenders are fantastic, and the ‘keeper. It’s not just one player.
“Marco Silva, I remember [him from] when he was at Everton and watching his team play. He always wants to play a good brand of football, a good style and that’s what he’s done.
“He’s excited the Fulham fans, he’s brought life back to Fulham if you like because they’re on the verge of getting back to the Premier League so I’ve thought they’ve been fantastic this season, but in saying that they have lost games as well.
“Teams have gone there, got on the front foot and had a go at them, and that’ll certainly be one of our aims to do that.”
The manager also takes confidence from his own side’s results so far this campaign, citing wins against other teams who have been pushing for promotion when North End turned up.
“What we’ve got to do is believe we can go there and take points,” Ryan added.
“We believed we could go to West Brom and take points, we took points off Bournemouth who are in and around.
“These are the teams you’ve got to believe you can take points off, and Tuesday [against] Fulham will be no different.”
You can hear more from the manager on Fulham in the second half of his interview following the Millwall game by clicking here.