Jordan Storey says it’ll be nice for him to return to Hillsborough this weekend with Preston North End.
The defender made 21 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign during a loan spell with the Yorkshire side.
Jordan helped them reach the Play-Offs, but the Owls fell just short as they were defeated by Sunderland in the semi-finals.
However, Wednesday did manage to seal their return to the Championship last season, progressing through the end-of-season lottery in dramatic circumstances.
“I think they deserved it,” Jordan said. “If you look at their squad and the quality of players they’ve got, it’s a great squad and credit to Darren [Moore] for getting the job done.
“I think the club as a whole deserve to be back in the Championship.
“It’ll be nice to go back there finally. It was a good loan spell there and I met some great people, some great lads, so it’ll be nice to finally go back there.
“I think it made me really buck my ideas up and focus, put all my energy into football, and obviously I look back at it with mixed emotions.
“Obviously it was good for me personally but to fall at one of the last hurdles was bitterly disappointing.”
North End head into the weekend following a promising start to the Sky Bet Championship campaign, having taken four points from the opening two league matches.
Will Keane earned a late point on the road against Bristol City and PNE then returned to Deepdale last weekend to defeat Sunderland.
Jordan reflected on that return by saying: “We’ll take it all day. We beat a good Sunderland side and I think we were a bit unlucky to not get three points against Bristol City.
“Obviously we were a bit disappointed with the Salford result but I suppose on the flip side we can concentrate on the league more now with fewer games, so we’ll be going into this weekend fully confident to get three points.
“The management team will prep us well, they’ll leave no stone unturned so I think we’ll be going into it confident and we’ll all know our jobs and we’ll know what we need to do to win.”
PNE will once again be backed in force, with over 1,600 supporters set to make the journey over the Pennines.
“It's massive,” Jordan said, about that support. “I feel personally like we’ve got one of the best away followings in the league.
“Obviously it’s a bit disappointing not to have as many derbies as we did last year, but the fans do travel well for us so it’ll be great.”