Preston North End forward offers verdict on Sheffield United after addressing Middlesbrough transfer talk

The Danish striker attracted interest over the summer after finishing as Preston’s top scorer last season, but remained at Deepdale following the summer transfer window and is now setting his sights on the Blades - after scoring late goals against them in both games last season.

“I scored late on last season to draw both games 2-2, hopefully this season I can score the winner!” he told our sister paper, the LEP.

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“They were some nice games and hopefully we can get three points. I saw they were first so they’re a strong side, they're the games we want to be in.

“We want to be up there as well. We’ve shown we can beat the good teams sometimes.”

On the summer speculation, Riis added: “It was tough, being out of the team and having the rumours going around was strange because I just want to play football. I'm here now, I'm happy to be here and I just want to keep going.

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“I just want to play football and I wasn't playing here, there was a big offer for me, so why not? But it's good to still be here. If I don't play football here then I want to go, I scored a lot of goals here last season and I want to play football and score goals.

"Coming on for the last 10 or 15 minutes, it was tough for me.

“In the end, I was happy to stay here. I definitely think it's the right choice.”

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