Graham Burke made his first appearance in a Preston shirt this afternoon, in a pre-season friendly against Bamber Bridge. Fair to say that North End made predictably light work of the game, cruising to a 7-0 win against non-league opponents.
While the opposition was farcically soft and in no way portentous of the challenges to come across the season, Burke made an instant impact by scoring within five minutes of his debut.
5' GOAL PNE! Great start for Graham Burke!
The summer signing has opened the scoring with a calm finish five minutes in to his first appearance in a North End shirt! #pnefc
0-1 #pnefc— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) July 7, 2018
📸 Graham Burke is congratulated by fellow Irishmen @Seani_Maguire_ and Daryl Horgan after netting his first PNE goal! 🇮🇪
0-1 #pnefc pic.twitter.com/WB03Rh0SMg— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) July 7, 2018
Seani Maguire was the game's dominant player, however, scoring a hat-trick in the space of 20 first-half minutes.
36' GOAL PNE!
It's a hattrick for Sean Maguire who starts pre-season in fine form as he fires home from the middle of the box! 🔥
0-5 #pnefc pic.twitter.com/EVJbYfZGRb— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) July 7, 2018
Preston played two separate teams in each half, with Burke and Maguire joined in the first-half team by Daryl Horgan, as the latter bids to impress Alex Neil and remain at the club in spite of interest from Hibernian. Alan Browne made an appearance in the second half.
After the game, Burke spoke to Preston's website, telling them of his satisfaction at making a goalscoring start while also heaping praise on Seani Maguire.
That was important for me. It’s brilliant to come on and play and get a goal is fantastic.
It came early into the game, so obviously I was a bit nervous coming in and getting to play with everybody but getting the goal early into the game was able to relax me and go and play the game.
Seani has great movement so for me playing in that position, to have someone like that is brilliant.
It makes my job a little bit easier knowing where he’s going to be and the runs he’s going to make.
He’ll feel like, having that break, he can come back in sharp, feel fresh and get ready to go again. You can see his movement with the goals he scored so for him it’s fantastic.
