Jason Euell on QPR test and benefits of a full training week for Preston North End

Preston North End take on QPR on Saturday in their final game before the international break.

Jason Euell will take charge of the match as North End’s interim manager while the club continues its search for a replacement for Paul Heckingbottom, who left the club last weekend alongside assistant Stuart McCall.

Their departures followed a run of six defeats in their opening seven league games, and PNE will desperately want to turn that form around. Euell says the test of QPR will be a tough one, but it will be no different to any other Championship game.

“It doesn’t matter if it was QPR, West Ham, we all know in this division every game is tough,” said Euell.

“Going to QPR, it’s going to be a place where it’s a tight stadium. We know it’s going to be difficult.

“They can be a very good team on their day, that’s similar to a lot of teams in the Championship.

“We’ve just got to focus on what we need to do. It’s about, yes, respecting them to a certain point and a level. But we’ve got to be understanding and knowing what we want and what we need to get from that game come five o’clock, which is a positive result and a positive outcome.”

Euell says a positive result to round off the first part of the season would be helpful on a psychological level as well, heading into the extended international break.

PNE’s next game after this one is on October 10, at home to Millwall.

“Every game has been important and we’ve just not picked up points to show that importance.

“But yes, it would be potentially good in some capacity on a psychological part to get three points, for example, and then you have your break and you look at the table and you go, OK, right, now we’ve got six points, there are two wins.

“We don’t want to be putting all the focus in and putting in a good performance and not get anything from it, which we’ve had too many times.

“The main thing is, yes, we want to get three points, but we make sure we leave with something and it then opens other questions and doors, obviously, from when the international break happens, what happens from there moving forward.”

This week has been the first time since mid-August that PNE have had no midweek game, allowing a full week of training at Euxton. Euell says this has been beneficial to the group.

“There’s always got to be the balance on it,” he told the Lancashire Post, “even when you don’t have a game midweek, you still need to get the players ready for a game on a Saturday.

“You’re still doing the type of distances and the yardage in terms of what you need, as if you did have a Tuesday game, because it’s still important for the players and the condition of their bodies.

“But it just gives you that little bit of extra time in terms of the concentration and not having to flip quickly from one game into another, and all of a sudden you’re out of that and into the next, so the free week has probably given the players a little bit more breathing time as well and a little bit more time for them to have their conversations and reflections and their thoughts about the game ahead.

“Again, we know every game’s important, but this one always just seems more important before the international break.”