Ryan Ledson's exclusive column: I am enjoying life at Preston North End

A big thing about Preston North End is how well and how quickly new players tend to settle in at Deepdale.
Preston North End's Ryan LedsonPreston North End's Ryan Ledson
Preston North End's Ryan Ledson

That has been the case with me, the lads have been absolutely brilliant from the moment I came in.

When I signed I was told by a few people that this was a good place to come to.

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I can say that is genuinely the case, there are no egos here – everyone is here to do the same job.

If you are not in the team, yes you are disappointed but that is only for a few minutes because you then want to support your mates and see them do well.

Being part of the Scouse car school has helped me, I’ve become great mates with Tom Barkhuizen and Calum Woods.

We drive in together and have a good laugh.

Woodsy is a dyed-in-the-wool Scouser like myself, while we are adopting Barky as one – he has moved over to Liverpool.

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Barky usually sleeps on the way in but has livened up by the time we drive home.

It was unfortunate to see Woodsy come off in the first half of the Morecambe game with a hamstring injury.

He hasn’t had too much luck has he? But knowing him, he’ll be back as quickly as he can and hopefully it is only a grade one or two tear.

Woodsy is a top lad to have around the dressing room, he’s been round the block and that experience is vital to any team.

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With this injury, if he has to be in earlier than normal to get treatment and to do his rehab, myself and Barky will come in early with him.

If he needs to stay longer in the afternoon, we’ll do that – whatever it takes.

It was nice to make my first start for Preston in the win over Morecambe.

The game went well, we put in a good performance and got through to the next round of the Carabao Cup.

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We played well for 40 minutes of the first half, got the two goals but then let Morecambe to score right on half-time.

That was disappointing but I thought we responded well and got ourselves going again in the second half.

As everyone will be aware the gaffer made 11 changes for the game and the display will have given him plenty to think about.

It shows how competitive we are, you could have played the XI which was picked on Tuesday night in a league game.

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My 90-minute run out was beneficial and it was great to get that time on the pitch.

It was competitive out there, Morecambe gave it a good go.

Championship clubs went out of the cup and we made sure we went into the hat for the next round.

I thought I played well, I sat in there, got on the ball and linked-up well with Paul Gallagher and DJ.

We’d try and get it to the lads who like to score goals and it was brilliant to see Brandon Barker, Louis Moult and Graham Burke find the back of the net.

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I wasn’t too far away from scoring myself and their keeper Barry Roche made a good save.

The ball dropped for me by the near post and I tried to make as good a connection as possible.

Roche is a good keeper, he’s been around for quite a while now, and he did well to save that one.

It was good to have Gally next to me in midfield, he’s a top footballer who has played 550 games.

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When you’ve got that sort of experience alongside you, it is something to learn from.

When Gally talks, it makes sense – he has played the game at a high level and knows what it is all about.

On the opening day of the season against QPR, I came on as a substitute during the second half.

It meant I was on the pitch with Ben Pearson and he is a top player – a good lad too.

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We get compared as being the same type of player but there is no reason why we can’t be in the team together.

I don’t think Pearo and myself are exactly the same kind of player.

Pearo is maybe a bit more defensive, whereas I like to get myself forward and make runs into the box.

When I was at Oxford, sometimes I would sit like Pearo does, other games I played more as a No.8 which meant I got forward more.

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I rate Pearo as one of the best midfield players in the Championship from what I have seen.

Maybe he gets overlooked by some people outside of the club.

The focus is now on the Stoke game on Saturday.

They’ve spent a lot of money over the summer and kept hold of a lot of their best players after being relegated from the Premier League.

It’s one we are all looking forward to.