It’s Swansea tomorrow and we know it will be another tough match. I have not been surprised how well they seem to have adapted to live in this league.

They did really well last year and they are a passing team and if you are a passing team then it makes the step up a lot easier. We get all the stats sent through to us and I think they are the team who made the most passes last month, so they have come up and they are trying to play football the right way.

They had a great result against Cardiff last week and it will be another tough game but i think every game in this league now is really tough.

You look at the three teams that came up, Nottingham Forest, Swansea and Doncaster all massive teams and then obviously the three that came down in Derby, Birmingham and Reading are three massive clubs again so the league is obviously a lot stronger now than ever before.

A lot of those teams are averaging crowds of over 20,000 for every home game, so when you do play these clubs there is a great atmosphere, they have a great away following as well so that helps them.

We are expecting it to be pretty loud at Deepdale on Tuesday but it is down to us to make sure it our fans doing all the singing.

Related categories: Championship, Preston North End, Sean St Ledger

It’s a really big game on Saturday the two games I have played in at Burnley have both been really exciting games with loads of action. I think Preston’s record at Burnley is good and everyone is really looking forward to it. There is no better game than playing in a local derby, especially after the way we performed against Wolves, we all feel we have got a point to prove.

Last year there were a couple of sending offs at Turf Moor and the games are really heated and I am sure because of last season it will give it an added edge and bit more spice to the game.

There is also the added spice with Graham Alexander now at Burnley and Richard Chaplow is here. They have swapped sides but we don’t really think about that too much, that is probably more of a personal issue for them. For Chappy he wears the Preston shirt with pride and I am sure he will be putting in 100% if he is picked to play on Saturday.

I don’t know too much about the history of Preston and Burnley but the rivalry is quite strange because the two towns aren’t that close. Coming from Birmingham, Birmingham v Villa was the main derby and that’s only a couple of miles apart, obviously there is the Liverpool and Manchester derbies where the rivalry is understandable.

But whatever the reason for the intense rivalry I love playing in these games, it is what you play football for and it is why I became a professional.

Related categories: Championship, Preston North End, Sean St Ledger

Saturday’s game was probably the toughest I have ever had in a Preston shirt. Wolves are a good team and they came to Deepdale and didn’t let us settle and they went away with the three points but credit to them they did their homework on us and stopped us from playing.

We were all disappointed to lose at home first of all and obviously to lose the unbeaten run but we have had a good start to the season, probably better than anyone expected so we have just got to move on and concentrate on the big game we’ve got on Saturday.

The Gaffer said after the game that we had done really well and he wanted to concentrate on that and not on the one bad game where we haven’t performed. It was just one of those games and some of the decisions didn’t go for us but that happens and I think over 46 games that will even itself out.

I was a bit surprised to see Chris Iwelumo’s red card upheld. If both sets of players are saying nothing happened then it is quite surprising but the referee is there to make a decision and obviously the panel are there to back the referee and that is what they’ve done but he has got to take the decision and get on with it. I did the best I could for him but it was nothing really, I think we came together and that was probably it but it is just one of those things that happen in football and unfortunately for him he got the bad end of things.

Referee’s seem to have been in the spotlight a lot this week, I still can’t believe what happened between Watford and Reading. I honestly don’t know how a goal was given, it is one of the strangest things that has ever happened and probably will ever happen in football.

Related categories: Championship, Preston North End, Sean St Ledger