By Pete Oliver

Alexander is once again focused on a spot in the play-offs

Defeat in last season's play-off semi-finals sparked a summer of discontent at Deepdale.

Manager Billy Davies departed for Derby in acrimonious circumstances.

Several of his backroom staff followed him and key defender Claude Davis took the short-cut to the top-flight by joining Sheffield United.

Even captain Graham Alexander admitted there must have been some doubts circulating about Preston's prospects of remaining as one of the Championship's top clubs.

But thanks to the winning mentality of new manager Paul Simpson and an emphasis on entertaining football, North End have dusted themselves down and taken off again.

Alexander told BBC Sport: "There was a lot of turmoil in the summer, which dragged into pre-season.

"The gaffer was fighting fires for the first two or three weeks in keeping it all together.

"He tried to keep it away from the players but it was quite hard as we were losing a lot of staff as well as players.

"A lot of people might have seen this as a season of consolidation and getting used to the new regime but we have hit the ground running and done really well.

"A lot of the credit must go to the gaffer and his staff. We are playing a different kind of football. The intention was to score more goals and we have been more attacking.

"It's quite the opposite to how we were last year. We had a great defence and that was the basis of our success but probably we couldn't score enough goals to get into the final two positions.

"Hopefully we have rectified that, as long as we can stay strong defensively as well."

Simpson has addressed that issue by bringing in Sean St Ledger and Liam Chilvers to replace Davies and Youl Mawene, whose pre-season injury was another potential hammer blow.

But it is in attack where Preston are really earning the plaudits. With 29 goals already, only leaders Cardiff City, who head Preston by a single point, have scored more.

The gaffer was fighting fires for the first two weeks Graham Alexander

And it is the spread of goals which is really catching the eye with a revitalised Danny Dichio, Patrick Agyemang and a fit-again Brett Ormerod sharing the limelight with hot property David Nugent.

"Nuge does get a lot of the publicity, and rightly so because he is a quality player. But the three others up front are scoring goals as well," Alexander added.

"We have got four centre-forwards who are really pushing each other on and doing well for us and then we have got Simon Whaley from midfield, who is our top scorer, so we do score a lot of goals."

Alexander himself is another valuable source of goals with the full-back scoring the 100th of his career in last Saturday's win over former club Luton Town.

For a defender to reach such a landmark is a notable effort and one the 35-year-old Scotland international was rightly pleased to reach.

He said: "I went into the season knowing I needed two more to get to a hundred. After scoring against Sunderland a few people wanted to talk about it but I didn't, being on 99, because it could put more pressure on."

New boss Paul Simpson has brought an attaching approach to Preston

Not that Alexander appears to feel the pressure with the penalty that he converted against Luton being the 52nd successful spot-kick he has managed from 57 attempts.

He added: "It has taken me a long time. I have been playing for 15 or 16 years to get to a hundred and it's something I'm really proud of.

"I was most happy that it came in a win and when I am finished playing it is something that will be nice to look back on."

With over 350 games for Preston and more than 700 in total behind him, Alexander has been the model of consistency throughout his career.

Preston are taking on a similar mantle after finishing in the play-offs in each of the last two seasons and three times in the past six years.

They are yet to progress further and claim a top tier place for the first time in 45 years.

We don't look too far ahead and fall flat on our faces Graham Alexander

But Alexander is unperturbed by the weight of recent history and is ready to tackle any promotion challenge that presents itself as long as Simpson's men can sustain their impressive start to the season.

He said: "The play-offs is a realistic target for a lot of clubs in the Championship. Getting into the top two is a tall order.

"Now we are in there it is a target for us. But if we finish in the top six that will be great for us and we would have nothing to worry about if we went into the play-offs.

"But there is a long way to go and we are not really thinking about that end of the season.

"In the last couple of years we have gone close and missed out so we know how hard it is to get out of this division.

"Hopefully we can last the distance and go the whole season, but we are keeping our feet on the ground.

"We are thinking about the games coming up. That's the way the gaffer wants is to approach it. We don't want to look too far ahead and fall flat on our faces."