North End midfielder Nicky Wroe spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Deepdale this evening, Wroe looking forward to a bit of a derby match:
“Obviously, they are just up the road, we saw when we played them in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy that it is going to add that extra bit of derby atmosphere to it, so we will be hopefully ready for it. It is still just three points even though it is a derby, so we will be looking to go into the game and take confidence from the weekend, hopefully improve on that performance and get the three points.
“It is great to be playing at home in front of your own crowd, they have been really getting behind us this year and hopefully they can do the same again on Tuesday night. But, it is going to be a tough game, we want to get three points, we have been underachieving maybe a bit and we want to put a performance in that shows we should be higher up in the table, so hopefully the three points will kick us on up towards the top end.
“There is a lot of competition for places, especially in central midfield, and Joel Byrom came in at the weekend and got himself a goal and did really well. It will be up to the manager (Graham Westley) really to decide who is fit and who is ready to go tomorrow night. I think the competition drives everybody on to perform day in and day out, they have got to be on their mettle and if they don’t play well they don’t hold on to the shirt because there will be somebody else who is able to come in and do well and pick up the pieces.”
In team news for Preston tonight they have a number of definite absentees, while also having doubts over a few other players. Firstly centre-half Shane Cansdell-Sherriff is out with a hamstring injury, while striker Lee Trundle is still on the comeback trail from his pre-season knee injury and winger Jeffrey Monakana is sidelined as he serves out a one-match ban for picking up five bookings this season.
As far as injury doubts are concerned meanwhile for the visitors central midfielder Joel Byrom is struggling with a leg injury, while centre-half Bailey Wright has been out recently with an ankle problem. Finally come left-back David Buchanan who is nursing a leg injury and central midfielder John Mousinho was has been suffering with a bout of illness recently. The only bit of good news for North End boss Graham Westley being that central midfielder John Welsh is available for selection again after seeing out a one-match suspension in Preston’s 3-0 FA Cup win over Yeovil on Saturday.
The referee for tonight’s match is Richard Clark from Morpeth and he will be assisted down the lines by Robert Jones from Wallasey on the Wirral and Andy Scregg from Liverpool. Meanwhile the fourth official is Barry Cropp from Lytham St. Annes.