New striker by next week please - Tim Mercer keen to see Preston bolster attacking options

In more normal times this would feel good and mean more points on the board.

However at the same time the goal drought continues, with a single Brad Potts wonder strike last week being the only one on record in the Table.

There are grumblings amongst some of the faithful, normally followed by the cry of ‘get in that new striker!’.

This fan will argue it may also be a lack of quality in the all-important final ball that is adding to the problem.

For me, there was too much of a tendency at times to strike from outside the box, these normally favouring the keeper.

In the one other senior match this season, four goals were scored in the League Cup away at Huddersfield and for me this was due in great part to a couple of high-quality crosses deep into the box by the currently injured Álvaro Fernández.

They were precise and to the feet of the subsequent unmarked scorer and such chances then

give breathing space for more speculative attempts.

Having said all that, this was yet again a highly entertaining match, with both teams creating chances to win it.

Alan Browne did get into the box on two occasions, getting good shots off that were saved well by the visiting Keeper.

He was tightly marked for both, and so were more difficult than those at Huddersfield and was up against a stopper in fine form.

Watford should have scored themselves, including a one-on-one that their new striker blasted over the top with only Freddie Woodman to beat.

We must also remember how much money has been spent on a Watford squad littered with Premier League experience and with their latest striker brought in from Barcelona of all places!

The reality is that Preston cannot fish in that pond and must find another way of converting the attacking and entertaining style Ryan Lowe has brought to the club into that all essential ingredient of getting some goals.

Let’s hope that the frankly less important mid-week League Cup match away to Wolverhampton Wanderers gives that breathing space for better quality assists and a return from injury of the promising looking Fernández.

Oh, and can we have the new striker and right wing-back by next Saturday please.