'We love playing Bristol City': Daniel Johnson looks ahead of Preston's latest visit to Ashton Gate

The Lilywhites head to Ashton Gate on Saturday having not lost in their last 10 games against Lee Johnson’s side.

Johnson has been at the club for most of those matches and scored in the 2-1 win in the West Country in December 2016.

He believes the game always has a little extra spice for PNE’s players given the connections between the sides.

Former North End favourite Greg Cunningham was regularly in action against his ex-employer while Bailey Wright and Josh Brownhill have both left Deepdale for City in recent seasons, even though the former will miss out injured on Saturday.

“We all love playing Bristol City to be honest,” said Johnson.

“It could be an ego thing. Because we know quite a few of their boys, it’s always good to get one up on your friends.

“We’ve had a good run against Bristol City and hopefully we can keep that going.

“But you can’t think about it too much, though.

“We’ve just turned up on the day and done our job when we’ve gone there recently.

“It’s not to do with the past or luck or anything like that. We’ve just got to play the conditions and dig deep.

“That’s what we’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks and maybe that’s why we’ve got a few points on the board.”

PNE take a six-game unbeaten run to Ashton Gate but are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.

Their hosts this weekend are 12th and just four points shy of the play-off spots.

“When we all looked back at last season it was all positive, we did really well,” said Johnson, who helped North End to seventh in the second tier last time around.

“We put that behind us really quickly though and tried to hit the ground running this season.

“For whatever reason it’s not gone our way.

“The disappointing thing for us is just not getting the points when we should have.

“The belief has always been there though.

“We’ve been in games where we’ve not played that well and got points and have been in games where we have played well and haven’t got anything.

“I feel like this little run we’ve been on has been good and hopefully we can just keep it going.

“We’ve just got to try and turn some of those draws into wins.”