Brad Potts was pleased to get 90 minutes under his belt as Preston North End earned a 2-1 victory against Hearts in their penultimate pre-season outing.
The No.44 was one of just two outfield players in the Lilywhites XI – alongside Emil Riis – to remain on the pitch for the entire contest, during which he provided the assist for Ben Woodburn’s opening goal.
The 28-year-old was pleased to have come through the duration of the game against a strong Hearts side.
He told iFollow PNE: “It was good to get 90 minutes. In recent games we’ve kind of built our fitness up. I’m happy to get 90 minutes in the legs and it actually felt alright, to be honest with you. It wasn’t a massively intense game. I felt alright.
“They’re a decent team, they try to knock it around quite well. Maybe first half we gave the ball away a bit too much but I think overall, we deserved it, we played some nice stuff at times. After the penalty, it was good to bounce back from the lads to get another goal.”
While his focus was on fitness, the midfielder felt North End were deserving of their win.
“I think their chances probably came from us giving the ball away. The penalty was a counter attack and they ended up scoring from that.
“I think we will debrief it tomorrow and go through token points about how we can stop teams countering without getting into our box. I think on the whole we deserved it.”
Now PNE look forward to a final pre-season friendly of the summer against Premier League side Leicester City at Deepdale; a test which Pottsy is looking forward to.
“It’ll be a tough game. Leicester are a really good Premier League team. I’m sure they’ll pass the ball about well so we’ll have to be disciplined and when we get our chances make them work well.
“It will be a different test to what we’ve been used to this pre-season but I’m sure it’ll be a good game.”
With Leicester’s visit the squad’s final chance to impress during pre-season, Pottsy said he and his team-mates are already doing all they can to force their way into the starting XI for the opening Championship game of the season against Wigan Athletic.
“We’ve had a tough pre-season and the closer you get to the season starting, you kind of just want the pre-season games out of the way with and get into the real stuff.
“It’s only one more game, then after Leicester, we’ll be preparing for a big game against Wigan.
“The manager said that about us playing for places really. Me personally and all the other lads will be doing everything can to be in the team for the first game.”
Watch Pottsy’s full post-match interview on iFollow PNE.