Sean Maguire pledges to score more goals after signing new Preston deal

Maguire yesterday signed a two-year contract extension which ties him to Deepdale until summer 2023.

The Republic of Ireland international was in the last 12 months of his previous deal and quickly agreed terms on the new offer.

He follows Paul Gallagher in putting pen to paper, with Gallagher signing a one-year contract on Thursday.

Maguire, 26, knows that his goalscoring record will be under scrutiny in 2020/21.

He found the net five times last season and scored three the campaign before.

His 10 goals in 2017/18 was his best return by far, even though he missed four months of that season with injury.

Maguire told the Lancashire Post: “I enjoyed last season although people will look at scoring record.

“I know I’m a striker and on paper I’m down as a striker but in the 44 games I played last season, probably only 10 of them I played as the No.9.

“More than 75% of the games I played out wide.

“But I know that five goals isn’t enough and I should be scoring more.

“My aim is to score a lot more this season and I’m confident of doing that.

“I’m a lot stronger mentally now than I was earlier last season and I’m really looking forward to getting started.

“With the loyalty which the manager showed to me through some tough spells when things weren’t going particularly right for me, I think signing this contract is giving something back.

“I want to give everything to try and help this club get into the Premier League.

“This is my longest spell at any club in my career, I’m going into my fourth year and this place feels like home.

“My family enjoy coming to see me here, I’ve a lot of friends in the area and we have a great set of lads in the squad.”

Maguire didn’t have to think too long about signing the new deal.

He was always likely to be in the first batch of players offered a deal, bearing in mind how often Neil played him.

It must be remembered too that in February, North End bought out the sell-on clause which his former club Cork City had – they did likewise with Alan Browne.

So his Deepdale contract was not going to be allowed to run down.

Maguire said: “It was about a week ago that the offer was made and it didn’t take me long to think about it.

“We are back training now and I can focus on getting ready for the season.

“Thursday’s training we were eased into but yesterday was quite tough and it will the same today.”