The Preston North End boss has reflected on his side's impressive performance during the first three months of the Championship season.

Paul Heckingbottom has called on his Preston North End squad to ‘avoid all the nonsense’ as they look to extend what has been a positive opening three months to the new Championship season.

It would be safe to suggest that the highs PNE are currently experiencing would not have been expected of Heckingbottom and his players after the Lilywhites only avoided relegation into League One on the final day of last season with a hard-earned 2-2 draw at Bristol City. However, the former Barnsley manager wasted little time in overhauling his squad during his first summer transfer window at Deepdale as he added 12 new faces to his squad.

The likes of Michael Smith, Alfie Devine and Daniel Iversen have all impressed during what has been a largely positive start to Heckingbottom’s first full season in charge. Despite suffering defeats against West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City in recent weeks, Friday night’s dramatic win against Heckingbottom’s former club Sheffield United ensured North End will head into Saturday’s visit to Southampton sitting just outside of the play-off places, with only an inferior goal difference preventing them from occupying the top six.

After making a disastrous start that saw the Blades take a two-goal lead inside the opening quarter of an hour, Heckingbottom’s men roared back into the contest as goals from Lewis Dobbin and Daniel Jebbison sandwiched a Japhet Tanganga own goal and gave them all three points.

Despite their struggles under new manager Will Still, Saturday’s long trip to Southampton will provide another major test of the Lilywhites’ confidence - but Heckingbottom has stressed his players can continue to impress by ‘focusing on themselves’ and ‘attacking every game’.

When asked if his side had surpassed their pre-season expectations, the former Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday defender said: “It's a tough one, listen, I would answer that way, like everything I've just been speaking about there. Anything's possible, anything is possible but likewise nothing's given to you, you've got to be prepared to take knocks, you've got to be prepared to lose games.

“When we got promoted at Sheffield United we didn't win for six games and we played five unbelievable games, one bad one. We only drew two; people write you off. Just avoid all the nonsense and focus on yourselves and that's all we've got to do. There's going to be ups and downs all season, all the time and all I'm bothered about is those lads giving their all and making sure we attack every game.”

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