Preston North End head coach sticking to his principles as Lilywhites prepare for a return to action

Removing the ‘interim’ tag from his job title won’t see the Scot change approach in terms of what he expects from himself and his players.

McAvoy won five, drew two and lost just one of his eight games in temporary charge in the final seven weeks of last season.

That sequence landed him the permanent position two days after the season finished.

A week into pre-season training, McAvoy has two days to get some more sharpness into the squad ahead of the first pre-season friendly at Bamber Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

McAvoy told the Lancashire Post: “The most important thing is to be the best you can be in training and the matches.

“You have to prepare the very best you can in order to try and win as many games as you can.

“Each game you take on its merits, you don’t look too far ahead. We did that for the last eight games of the season and it served us well.

“Those eight games have long gone, the full season is ahead of us and that is what we’ll be judged on.

“It’s exciting and a lot of hard work is going into making sure we are in the right shape.

“We are only just getting to the first friendly game but trust me, the start of the season will soon to be here.”

The Bamber Bridge visit will be first game which PNE supporters have been able to attend since March 7, 2020.

That makes it a significant occasion in its own right and while the capacity has been limited to 1,300, the crowd noise will be a blessing for the players.

McAvoy will look to give a run out to as many of the squad as possible at Brig, changing the full team at half-time.

Anyone carrying a slight strain or knock from training won’t be risked though.

Izzy Brown and Matthew Olosunde should get their first run-outs since joining North End in the summer.

McAvoy is also likely to field some of the younger players who have been doing pre-season training with the first-team squad.

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