Ryan Ledson has been impressed by Ipswich Town’s season so far, ahead of their visit to Deepdale this weekend.
The Tractor Boys, who were led back to the Championship last term by Kieran McKenna, raced into an automatic promotion place early in the campaign and they still sit second in the division.
Their form in recent weeks hasn’t quite reached the levels it was at, having won one of their previous seven league matches, and they were beaten by non-league Maidstone United in the Emirates FA Cup last weekend.
Ryan said: “They’ve got a great way of playing. They’ve got a great manager, and you can see they’ve just got confidence.
“They’ve just carried on where they left off last year. I think coming into the Championship is a lot harder, but they’ve done really well.
“They might have had a wobble in the last couple of weeks but to be where they are is full credit to them and fair play to them.
“I think they’ve had a couple in the league where they’ve not won as well. They’ve been on a little bit of a sticky patch and for the Maidstone game they made loads of changes, so I’m expecting them to go full strength on Saturday.
“They’ll be looking to get back to winning ways just like us.”
It’s North End’s first home match in three weeks, following defeat on the road against Leeds United and a draw against Millwall.
The previous clash at Deepdale saw PNE come out on top against Bristol City thanks to a brace from Will Keane.
Ryan said: “I think our home form this season hasn’t been too bad to be honest.
“We’ve had some good wins. Obviously the last game was Bristol City so it was a good three points there, so hopefully again we can give a good account of ourselves against a good side and see what can happen.
“We got three points against Bristol City. The Leeds one is a great performance and then obviously the handball in the last minute is unfortunate.
“I personally don’t think it was a handball, but it was a good performance and another good performance at Millwall.
“We’re looking in the right direction, ready for a tough game on Saturday, but one where we can hopefully get all three points.”
The 26-year-old midfielder was back in the starting XI for the clash at The Den, sitting alongside Ben Whiteman, who committed his long-term future to the club a day before.
Ryan said he’s “made up” about that, and he was also full of praise for skipper Alan Browne after he made his 400th appearance for the club.
“It’s an unbelievable achievement,” he said. “I’ve been with Alan since I got here so it’s my sixth season with Alan.
“He’s been an unbelievable player for this club since I’ve been here and obviously before.
“To make 400 games is out of this world and hopefully he can go on to make many, many more because he deserves it.”