FL72 Blog: Preston's Kevin Davies talks technology and deadline day nerves

skysports.com will be getting inside the minds of the players this season.

We had a chat with regular blogger Kevin Davies of Preston North End to discuss goal-line technology, the stress of transfer deadline day and his own push for first-team action.

The striker came off the bench in their 1-0 win over Shrewsbury in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, and although he’s not getting plenty of game time, he says it shows how good their squad is.

Taming the Shrews

It was nice to get out there against Shrewsbury. I’ve not been playing as much as I would have liked, but we’ve got a very strong squad and everyone’s fighting to get in the team, or even on to the bench, and I’m no different. It was a chance for a number of our players who haven’t been playing as much to show what they can do in front of the manager.

Everyone’s fighting to get in the team, or even on to the bench, and I’m no different

We played against a good side and I’m just happy we managed to get through to the next round. It was a good workout for everyone – obviously we want to keep winning football matches and progressing in the cups, so it was a good night for us.

Confidence

Last weekend against Sheffield United was a really good match. There were chances at both ends – it was a high-tempo game between two good sides who expect to be in and around the top two, or top six definitely. They didn’t start particularly well, but when they got the goal back they started to move the ball and you could see the confidence coming back into their game. It was a good atmosphere at Deepdale, and I think a draw was probably a fair result in the end.

We had a goal that a few players thought was over the line from Jack King’s header, but it was tough for the linesman to see – there were a lot of bodies in the way. Had that one been allowed, or had Jack put it in, we may have gone on to win the game.

It would be nice to see goal-line technology. It’s definitely helping in the Premier League so it would be nice to see in the Football League because everyone’s working so hard, and it could cost someone staying in the league or going up a league.

You work 10 months of the year and it could boil down to one of those situations at the end of the season.

More ruthless

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We’ve drawn three of the first five, and the number of draws is something we’re addressing from last season. We had 16 draws, and that was a problem that probably cost us getting anywhere near the top two. Our performances have been pretty good, and we just have to keep going. It’s going to be tight – there are a number of good teams in this league so it’s a level playing field.

We do have to win more games, especially at home – we need to be a bit better at putting our chances away. We’re creating good chances and it’s everyone, not just the strikers. We need to be a bit more ruthless if we’re going to try and amass the total number of points that we want this year, which is around 90.

But we’re unbeaten so there are lots of positives, and we’ll just keep going into the next game.

Shock

After the disappointment of losing to Rotherham in the play-off semi-final, we all came in the next day and the manager thanked everybody, and assured us there wouldn’t be too many comings and goings. He maybe wanted to add one or two more new faces, whi