VIDEO: Maguire hopes first PNE goal is just the start

Sean Maguire celebrates scoring on his PNE debut.

The prolific former Cork City front man, a half-time substitute along with fellow new boy Kevin O’Connor, drove at the Burnley defence just after the hour mark before firing home a low shot.

It was the perfect way to announce himself to Deepdale despite the 2-1 defeat to Sean Dyche’s Premier League side.

“I’ve been doing well for Cork and came into this game very confident,” who has scored 20 League of Ireland goals in 2017.

“Coming off the bench I knew I’d be able to make myself an opportunity and whether it goes back into the net or not that’s what I’m going to bring to the team.

“When the ball goes out wide I’m always in the box and I score a lot of goals there, I rarely score outside the box.

“That’s something I need to work on but hopefully I can kick on and take it into the next game and into the big one in a couple of weeks’ time.”

The goal itself saw Maguire profit on Eoin Doyle dispossessing Steven Defour, the new signing then running fully 30 yards before finishing confidently past Nick Pope.

“Me and Doyler had a bit of laugh about why I didn’t pass to him,” said the former West Ham youngster.

“But I told him that once I picked up the ball I only had one thing on my mind and that was getting a shot on goal.

“I took the ball and shifted it onto my right foot people probably thought I’d lost it but it crept into the bottom corner and I was delighted.”

More than anything Maguire was delighted to finally pull on a Preston shirt, his North End deal having been announced at the start of June.

Along with O’Connor, the pair formally linked up with their new team mates on Monday before giving 45 minutes on their debuts against the Clarets.

“It was amazing to finally pull the jersey on and step out onto the pitch tonight,” said Maguire.

“It’s been happening for the last couple of months and I’ve been dreaming of that moment and walking out in front of the Preston fans.

“Scoring is a massive plus but it was a great runout against a top team.

“We’ll be disappointed in one way because we’re going away with a 2-1 loss but we can obviously take positives from the game.

“We’ll look to take that into the last pre-season game now at Fleetwood and into the first game of the season.”