For Preston North End’s young striker David Nugent it has been a whirlwind 2005. Few had even heard of the chirpy scouser when he arrived on Deepdale’s doorstep in a £100,000 move from Bury at the start of January. He’d scored 13 goals for the Shakers but that’s all we really knew, four months on, the people of Preston can’t stop talking about their latest hero.

The matchday programme caught up with Nugent earlier this week to talk about his rise to stardom.

“I came here looking to get in the starting eleven,” is Nugent’s honest appraisal of his targets upon first arriving at Deepdale.

“I have done that and now we are in the play-offs so I am delighted to be in the play-offs. We have got Derby today, it should be a tough game, as we saw last weekend they are a good side but hopefully we can come through it.”

Nugent only played a bit part role in last week’s trip to Pride Park as North End boss Billy Davies chose to rest some of his key players. The fact that Rams boss George Burley only caught a fleeting glimpse of the youngster could mean that the PNE No.35 could be a secret weapon this afternoon, Nugent agrees that Billy’s cautious approach last week could be a tactical masterstroke.

It will be weird, to playing the same team three times on the bounce will be strange but that will happen sometimes in the play-offs and you just have to cope with it.

He said: “The Gaffer rested a few players last week like Brian O’Neil, the skipper Chris Lucketti and myself but players came in and did well. The Gaffer is not interested if you play home or away, he is confident that we can play well at home and away and that is the way that he wants it.

“Derby are beatable, we controlled the game for the first 25 minutes, they got a free-kick which they have taken early and it has gone in. It is a sucker punch just before half-time and when the second goal goes in you know that it is lost really. We tried a few changes to try and get back into the game, we have done that and then we lost Graham Alexander through an injury and that put us down to 10 men, they got a third and then it was definitely over. But we have got a lot of players to come back and hopefully we can beat them this weekend.

“It is a good thing that we rested a few key players, they won’t know what to expect this week when we play them when the players come back in. They will be confident that they can do us again but with more players coming in it will be a totally different game.

“It will be weird, to playing the same team three times on the bounce will be strange but that will happen sometimes in the play-offs and you just have to cope with it.”

Nugent has already paid much of the small fee that the Lilywhites sent down to Gigg Lane earlier this year. His eight goals in North End colours have helped catapult PNE into the play-off zone. And it’s not as if the strikes have been tap-ins, some of them have been worth the admission fee alone and made the youngster a fans favourite. Nugent is a firm believer that the fans can play a huge part in North End’s destiny this season and that they are currently on form!

“The fans can play a massive part,” said the striker.

“They have a huge influence on us, when they get behind us we seem to play better, hopefully they will get behind us on Sunday and hopefully we can do it for them.

“They come away from home as well to cheer us on. It is great for the fans and us when we get the fans behind us away especially with the home crowd trying to get on top of us, our fans seem to be getting on top of their fans at the moment even if there are less of them. If we do that again next week then it will be great.”

Whatever happens over the next few days, for Nugent the 2004/05 season will be remembered as the one where the young lad from Merseyside really announced himself to a the footballing nation, he could be representing that nation in the Toulon Tournament come the start of June, however he would prefer it if he was playing in a tournament otherwise known as the Premiership.

“It has been a massive month for me, I’ve been scoring goals for Preston and then I got the call-up for the Under-20s and then getting into the play-offs.

“It has been a great season for me, I just want to get into the Premiership now with Preston, if not then there is always next year but we are in the frame of mind that we want to go up this year.”