Preston North End man hungry to emulate what Sheffield United and Leicester City stars did at Deepdale

Layton Stewart has revealed he is taking inspiration from Cameron Archer and Tom Cannon as he bids to make his Preston North End career a success.

The 21-year-old joined the Lilywhites last summer summer with Stewart ending his 12-year association with the Reds. He has so far made seven appearances for North End, all of them coming off the bench as a substitute in the Championship.

Before his arrival in Lancashire, Stewart was prolific at academy level for Liverpool, and scored an impressive 43 goals in 53 games for the under-18s and under-23s. His form though only went so far as he made just one senior appearance, a Carabao Cup win over Derby County. A loan departure from Liverpool was initially thought of but Preston pursed a permanent deal and following the move is now seen as a long-term project for Ryan Lowe.

Stewart told The One and Only: "I wasn't playing with the Under-23s and at the time I wasn't getting the chances I felt I deserved. To be honest, my main priority was to show what I can do at senior level and I thought the best way to do that was going to be a loan. But, when the chance came up to come here it was one I just couldn't turn down.

A motivating factor in his move to Deepdale was the success of young strikers like himself. Last season, Tom Cannon joined on loan from Everton and netted eight goals. He earned a £7.5m move to league leaders Leicester City. Cameron Archer who came before him scored seven goals in 20 games in a loan spell before Aston Villa. He moved to Premier League strugglers Sheffield United who paid £18m to secure his services.

Stewart added: "It's a big club and I'd seen what the gaffer had done in the past couple of years, with Tom Cannon and Cameron Archer. They are my sort of age and I just want to develop like they did. You can't really get much better experience than playing in the Championship, because it's one of the toughest leagues there is - especially for a young lad. It was time for me to come and develop myself."

And on dreaming about scoring his first goal for PNE, Stewart added: "I've thought about it since the day I joined. My first professional goal is the goal I want most, out of all of them I've ever scored. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later, because I really can't wait for that moment. 

"I knew it was always going to be tough, because there are four other senior strikers here and they are flying. My plan was to come and settle in the first season, try and get as many games as I can under my belt - and then hopefully try and kick on next season and start more games."