Deepdale form is a tonic for Grayson

The Lilywhites went more than six months without a league victory at home.

However, they have now won three on the bounce in front of the Deepdale faithful.

And the trio of victories against Cardiff, Wigan and Aston Villa, were all achieved with clean sheets.

North End manager Grayson said: “We had been disappointed with the home form over the last six months.

“But there were signs we were getting closer to where we wanted to be and we have won the last three now.

“To get three straight wins and three clean sheets with them is fantastic.

“The support and backing which the fans gave us against Aston Villa was superb.

“It has been nice to win in front of them and give them something to shout about.”

Until the tide turned last month, PNE’s previous Championship win at Deepdale had come against Charlton on February 23.

They went eight home matches without a win, six last term and two this season.

The run ended three weeks ago with a 3-0 victory over Cardiff.

A week last Friday, Grayson’s men beat Wigan 1-0 in a televised game.

Then on Saturday, they served up arguably their best performance of the campaign in the 2-0 win over Villa.

With 10 points collected from the six league games played since the September international break, Preston go into the current fortnight’s gap in action in decent shape.

Grayson intends mixing time on the training pitch with some rest days for the squad, before they resume at Brighton a week on Saturday.

“We’ve been going well of late and we have built up some momentum,” said Grayson.

“But I do think we need a breather because of the busy schedule we have had.

“We need to be refreshed for the next batch of games which are tough ones.

“The lads will get a few days of rest in among the work we get into them in training.

“We’ve just had seven games in three weeks, then after the international break, there are six games in a similar period.

“It thins out after that – I think there are only three games scheduled in November, which makes no sense whatsoever.”

A couple of the PNE squad will be away on international duty in the coming days.

Bailey Wright is back in the Australia squad after missing September’s internationals with a toe injury.

The Socceroos play two World Cup qualifiers, against Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Friday and then Japan in Melbourne a week today.

Alan Browne is in the Republic of Ireland Under-21s to face Serbia on Friday.

Aiden McGeady’s place in the full ROI squad is in doubt because of a hamstring injury.