But the Deepdale manager is refusing to lay all the responsibility for shooting Preston up the table solely at the door of his quartet of strikers.

He is demanding other departments provide more ammunition for the frontmen to fire.

And he has revealed the squad will be doing just as much work on creating chances as they do on finishing them when pre-season training gets underway on July 1.

"Goals are a worry, without a doubt," he told the Evening Post.

"But we have done a lot of video work with the strikers and a lot on the training ground.

"I think the strikers know a lot better now where we want them to get to in terms of positions and the type of movement we are looking for.

"But of course there are a whole lot of things that are needed to come together in order to create chances.

"And one of the big things I am really looking forward to working on is our passing, receiving and movement as a team.

"It might sound a bit of an obvious statement, but we need to create more chances in order for the strikers to score more goals."

In all, North End used nine strikers last season – four of them on loan.

Between them they found the net just 29 times in 50 matches in league and cups.

Ten of those were scored by Neil Mellor, nine of them after Irvine took over as manager.

But the most anyone else managed was five – by both Chris Brown and Karl Hawley.

The team's overall goals-per-appearance ratio was just short of one in six.

Irvine is looking to improve on that considerably next term.

"The fact is, looking back, I don't think we have created lots and lots of chances," he said.

"There have been spells where they have missed great chances and we talked about that around December when we were missing some good openings. Not lots and lots, but very good ones all the same.

"While we were missing them at one end we were making a mistake at the other end and, of course, that is going to be a disaster, isn't it?

"But as the season has gone on I don't think we have been missing as many.

"And when strikers miss they need to know there is another one coming along just around the corner.

"I think Neil Mellor has shown that there are goals there, without any question. He is a natural finisher.

"Most of his goals have come since January and at first a lot of them were off the bench.

"But the good thing is he is now scoring when starting games, which is good.

"Neil, of all the players, was probably the one who was wishing the season hadn't ended when it did because he was on a nice little run."

Irvine admits that, as things stand, adding to his strikeforce is not a major priority this summer, with centre-half and left-wing the two main areas of concern in terms of cover.

But with Brett Ormerod having been out on loan at Nottingham Forest for the last two months of the season – at his own request – it may be that there could be a vacancy in that department should he or any of the others be the subject of a tempting bid during the summer.

North End continue to be linked with USA international Taylor Twellman, despite an offer in excess of £1.5m being rejected by Major League Soccer.