Paul Heckingbottom's Call for Wins as Preston North End Struggles
Paul Heckingbottom knows the talking has to stop. The new signings are in, the money has been spent, and Preston North End are rooted to the bottom of the Championship with four defeats from four.
Now, he says, it’s about one thing only: winning.
Backed in the market, bottom in the table
Preston pushed hard in the summer. A dozen new faces arrived across July and August, serious backing for a club that has often had to cut its cloth carefully. Heckingbottom is adamant that, at least on paper, the squad is no longer short.
“We've got the tools now. We've put the squad together. Now we have to get to work and get the wins. That's the only way noise stops. You've got to start winning,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire.
The reality, though, is harsh. Four games, four losses, three goals scored, and the Lilywhites sit at the foot of the early table. The manager is blunt about why.
“There's no way we had a competitive team at the start of the season,” he said. “The squad has changed every single week from the first game.”
That churn has eased. The excuses, he knows, cannot continue.
From January high to spring collapse
This is a club still carrying the scars of last season. Preston were flying in January, sitting fourth and flirting with the play-offs. Then the form fell off a cliff. Just three wins in their final 15 league games dragged them down to 14th.
That collapse sharpened minds in the boardroom. Heckingbottom calls this summer’s outlay “unprecedented” and makes clear he is grateful for the backing, but he has been careful to stress that money alone won’t fast-track success.
“The biggest thing that we had to do as a club if we want to move forward and start competing is make sure we can develop our own players,” he said.
“Ultimately the benefit is you have success together, or you sell players and move on and invest.
“Progression, finishing as high as we can, and winning promotion and growing the club is further down the line. The short term is just winning games.”
Long-term vision is fine. Right now, the table is not.
Goals in short supply, solutions in short order
The numbers in attack tell their own story. Preston have scored only three times in the league so far. For a side that lost five centre-forwards over the summer and brought in just two, the shortage in the box is no surprise to their manager.
“Even now, we lost five centre-forwards in the summer, and we've replaced them with two,” Heckingbottom said. “We're going to have to get goals and assists and create chances in other ways. We've tried that with the wider players.”
The demand spreads across the pitch. He wants defenders to step up too.
“We'll need goals from centre-backs as well this season, which we haven't previously had enough of.”
Set pieces, late runs, scruffy finishes from second balls – Preston will have to squeeze every angle they can find.
Derby test with little margin for error
Next up is Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, a Lancashire derby that rarely needs extra spice. This one has it anyway. Bottom of the table, new squad, new expectations, and a fanbase waiting to see some return on that “unprecedented” investment.
Heckingbottom insists the club has taken its “first step to improve resources and be able to start to compete, and get to the level where we can really push.”
Now comes the second step, the only one that truly counts in the Championship: turning that backing into points, and doing it before early‑season anxiety hardens into something far more damaging.
