Liam Lindsay says there will be an element of looking for revenge involved as Preston North End prepare to face Sunderland.
Saturday’s match is the first home game of the Championship campaign and a repeat of the closing fixture of the 2022/23 season.
PNE will be doing everything in their power, however, to make sure it’s not a repeat in terms of how the match went, with the Black Cats picking up a 3-0 victory that day which earned them a spot in the Play-Offs.
Liam said: “I’d like to say I’ve moved on a little bit but it’s still in the back of your mind.
“It was never nice on our patch as well to do that. It kind of makes you want to be in their shoes, so there’s a bit of revenge maybe and we just need to put in a better performance because it wasn’t good enough the last game.
“We just need to get a bit of revenge and play much better than what we did.”
Tony Mowbray’s side started their campaign with a defeat on home turf against newly-promoted Ipswich Town, but having watched the game Liam felt they deserved more.
The defender played 90 minutes in North End’s season opener against Bristol City, which ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to Will Keane’s late leveller.
“I think we probably deserved more than we got,” added Liam. “But away from home, before the game you take a point.
“I think the second-half performance especially gives us confidence going into this next game.
“If we lost that game it would have been a tough one to take, but Keano got a good goal and overall I think it’s something to be confident about going into Saturday.”
Last season’s match-up against Sunderland at Deepdale brought in a crowd of more than 21,000 and there was a fantastic atmosphere inside the stadium.
It’s likely to be another bumper crowd this weekend, and Liam recognises that North End need to perform better at home than they did during the previous term.
He said: “It helps us a lot when Deepdale’s packed out and the fans are singing.
“Our home form wasn’t great last year so we need to pick that up and hopefully it starts on Saturday.
“Hopefully our away form stays the same but the home form needs to improve massively.
“I think we all know that. We talked about it a lot last season, even in the group as well, so we just need to get off to a good start.”