ROB Edwards has picked out his former Welsh team-mate Gareth Taylor as one of the dangermen of the Burnley side ahead of tonight's Turf Moor showdown.

The Preston defender knows the Clarets striker from their days together as internationals and is looking forward to their battle.

"He is a big, strong lad and is good in the air. I haven't played in the same team as him for the last few years so I don't know if he has changed his game, but Gareth is always strong."

Edwards has been an integral part of Preston's second successive promotion challenge. Having gone up from Division Two with the Clarets last season, David Moyes's men are now chasing a play-off spot.

The 27-year-old left-back is bidding to keep the momentum going tonight but is expecting a backlash from the Burnley side following their 5-0 thumping by Blackburn.

"When you get beat 5-0, especially against your local rivals, it dents your pride," he said. "Burnley will want to win for their fans and they will be having a go at us. But we expect this and will be prepared.

"I watched the Blackburn game and agreed with Stan Ternent. Blackburn are a Premiership team playing at Division One level. The players they've got -- the likes of Matt Jansen and David Dunn -- are higher than First Division players."

"They are Premiership players on Premiership wages and I fully agreed with what Stan Ternent said."

But Preston do have their own up-and-coming stars who are eyeing a future in the top flight with North End. Their young strike force of Jonathan Macken, 23, David Healy, 21 and on-loan Leicester forward Richard Cresswell, 23 have made a big impact this season.

"They are a good young set of lads," continued Edwards. "Hopefully they can score a lot of goals that can get us into the play-offs."

Boss Moyes has been keeping tight-lipped about the 'p' word ever since Preston bounced back from a run of five straight losses over the New Year to reignite their promotion charge with seven wins in their last ten games.

"I think he is playing it down a bit just so we don't build it up too much," Edwards admitted. "Whatever happens it has been a good season for us. We were just trying to stay in the league after promotion last season so even if we don't make the play-offs we haven't failed.

"But if we win four out of our next eight games I think we will be there and that will be something else."

And the Preston lads are keen to get one of those wins under their belts at Turf Moor tonight.

"We always seem to do quite well against Burnley. I think we've beat them in the last three meetings so they'll be keen to get one over on us, especially with the Sky television cameras there."

However, despite its billing as a local derby, the defender hasn't heard too much about a big build up this week.

"I was at Bristol City with former Burnley player Micky Mellon and when we played a derby there against Bristol Rovers it was a huge game," he said.

"Burnley's main rivals are Blackburn. I remember when we played them earlier on in the season the fans were singing about Blackburn as they played them the week after.

"Our main local rivals are meant to be Blackpool, although we haven't played them for a while. So I don't know whether this is counted as such a huge derby.

"Because of this, it means playing Burnley is just another game, although we will have a large following. We always seem to take plenty of fans there."

And Edwards knows the reaction of the home support could work for Preston.

"I don't find Turf Moor too much of an intimidating atmosphere. Last season we went there and won 3-0 and we had 5,000 fans cheering us on, he said.

"But the Burnley fans are really good for their side when they are winning, they really support them. It's when Burnley are losing that the fans get on their backs. It will be interesting to see what happens tonight."