Star all set for Preston - exclusive

Last updated : 02 August 2006 By Andy Parsons

The right-back has played a major part in all the club's games in America and on home soil against Middlesbrough and Mansfield and now is just looking forward to the season opener.

He told Footymad: "I can't wait now for Saturday to arrive. We have had a number of pre-season games and got through them ok, we are mainly injury free so now it's just looking forward for the real games to start.

"I think pre-season has been alright so far. The only poor game was at Mansfield and when I say poor I mean embarrassing, very embarrassing but we put in a decent performance against Middlesbrough, we didn't play bad at all so now we have a full week to recover and get ready for Preston to hopefully go there and get the win."

It was a pleasant surprise when the former Arsenal defender found out that Wednesday would be playing in the States during the club's pre-season campaign and was glad that a few old friends could see him play.

He added: "I was really pleased when I found out that we would be playing in the States this summer. I knew for a fact that I would have people come out and see me play that hasn't seen me play in a while and playing in front of family and friends was a great experience. It was a great experience for the whole team as well because I think we bonded well because we also had a number of good training sessions so hopefully at the start of the season we will be raring to go.

"We still have a bit of work to do but for the most part, we are ready. We are looking good and we are looking sharp so we have to look forward to Preston and making sure that we get off to a good start.

"It could have been a home game to start off with but we have to play away sometime we went away last season and put in a really good performance so hopefully we can go to Preston and do the same there as we did at Stoke."