Emil Riis feels PNE need to start the season well at home if teams are to fear coming to Deepdale this term.
North End will play their first competitive home game of the campaign on Saturday afternoon, when Hull City come to Lancashire for a 3pm kick-off.
Manager Ryan Lowe, and Daniel Johnson in this weekend’s programme, have spoken about the importance of Deepdale becoming a fortress during the 2022/23 season, and that starts on Saturday.
Emil said: “We need to set the first couple of games right so they fear coming here.
“We need to just take every game one game at a time and be up for it.”
North End were looking to start strong at the same time last year too, when they were again preparing for the visit of Hull City, for what was the opening game of the campaign.
PNE got off to a flyer that day, with Emil scoring just eight minutes in, with that strike being his first in front of the Deepdale faithful, but it was the Tigers who went on to claim victory.
Emil added: “That was obviously my first goal in front of the fans so it was great to show them straight away when they were there that I can score goals, and hopefully I can do the same this year.
“Last year we were looking forward to the first game of the season.
“The first game of the season is always special, so the first home game of this season is going to be special as well.
“Hopefully we have to redeem ourselves from last year.”
The 24-year-old didn’t quite manage to get on the scoresheet in the season opener this time around, against Wigan Athletic.
Both he and new teammate Troy Parrott came very close, only to be denied by Ben Amos, and the Danish striker is keen to build on his relationship up top with the Spurs loanee.
“He’s a good player,” said Emil. “Obviously he didn’t train a lot before he played in the game, but obviously we can get to know each other and I think we will be playing well together.
“You can talk and practice a lot, but it’s about knowing each other in certain situations where you don’t have to think about what you’re going to do and what he’s going to do.
“It just has to come natural to you. I’ll get to know him and playing a lot of minutes with him will definitely improve us.”
With a first full season under Ryan Lowe, PNE are keen to hit the ground running this season, and there’s one clear end goal in Emil’s mind.
“Obviously we want to be up there around the Play-Offs,” he added.
“You always dream of going to the Premier League so I think that should be the target. We’ll have to see how that goes.”