PNE defender is in his seventh season at Deepdale

It’s a long old way from Somerset, but Preston has been Jordan Storey’s home for the last six years and he hopes his North End can continue for a little longer.

Signed from Exeter City, in the summer of 2018, Storey featured regularly in his debut season at Deepdale - but saw game time limited the following campaign, after PNE signed Patrick Bauer. He did work his way into the side again, before being sent out on loan to Sheffield Wednesday in January 2022.

It was unclear what the future held for the number 14 at that stage, but for the last two seasons, and counting, he has been a regular in the heart of North End’s defence. Now 27-years-old, and closing in on 200 club appearances, the centre-back assures motivation has never been higher.

Sign up for our PNE newsletter

“Especially for myself being here so long, because I know I am getting older, I want to actually achieve something here,” said Storey. “The older you get, you want to be able to look back on that season. So, I think if anything, the older I am getting the more hungry I’m getting. I want to achieve something here, before I eventually end up leaving.

“Obviously, the fans want us to get promoted, which is fair enough. I think it still is a good achievement, where we’ve been getting, on the budget we’ve got. But I think it is frustrating, especially for the fans, when you see the likes of Luton go on and get promoted. To be honest with you, the quality we’ve got in here, there is absolutely no reason why we can’t do that as well.

“I don’t want to leave here with any regrets. So, like I say, hopefully the time will come. I think that is the added bonus of having (Paul Heckingbottom) here. He has managed to achieve promotion, obviously in slightly different circumstances. He has got that knowledge of how to do it. If you look at the last two seasons, we’ve come up short in the last five games. So, hopefully he’s that added bit.”

Storey is speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to The Den, to face Millwall. It will be the seventh game under the stewardship of Heckingbottom, who has two Carabao Cup wins, one Championship victory, two draws and one defeat to his name so far at Deepdale. Storey has been extremely impressed with the impact of him and assistant, Stuart McCall, in a short space of time.

“I think it has helped us,” said Storey. “It has obviously been a rollercoaster few weeks. I didn’t quite expect all of this to happen, but I think we did need fresh ideas. I didn’t think massive things needed to be changed, but certain things did and credit to them both - they have found what’s needed to be changed and tweaked little things. In five or six games, he’s managed to make us a more solid team and make us play a lot more, because I think we were starting to come away from that a little bit. Things like that take time and I think, by the end of the season, you’ll see a far more equipped team.”

With all of that in mind, the answer to whether Storey would like to earn a new contract at Preston is a pretty simple one. Heckingbottom is challenging the defence in a new way and it will be interesting to see who comes through it, long-term. North End’s number 14 knows it’ll be his time to leave one day, but he wants to remain part of things beyond next summer for sure.

“Yeah, I’ve obviously enjoyed my time up here,” said Storey. “I cannot quite believe how quickly it’s gone to be honest with you. Preston showed faith in buying me as a young lad and I’d like to think I’ve started to repay it back over the last few years. So yeah, it would be nice to stay here and achieve something with them. Obviously, it’s football and anything can happen. So, if it is not meant to be, it’s not meant to be. But, hopefully it is.”