For a while, it seemed like the training ground in the Lancashire village of Euxton was jinxed.
First, it belonged to Bolton Wanderers, who had to sell the place amid financial troubles in 2016. It was bought by nearby Wigan Athletic, who later faced turbulent times of their own and, in 2020, administration. The echoes of their presence at the site now occupied by Preston North End are hard to find — an outline of where the Wigan crest once hung on a wall near its three immaculate pitches is all that lingers of the supposed Euxton curse these days.
Preston got off to a flier in the Championship this season under Ryan Lowe, with six wins from the first seven games, and now have a crunch week ahead with away fixtures against Leicester City and Ipswich Town — the only two sides above them in the table. Saturday brought a bruising reminder of the quality of English football’s second tier this year in the form of a 4-0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion, but Preston, 12th last time out, have more than held their own in a start that has shocked many, if not their manager.
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“Nothing surprises me in football,” Lowe says from his office overlooking those pitches at Euxton. “If you do the work and you’re organised in everything you do, I believe whatever team we put out can go and compete. You look at the teams around you and of the teams who came up, you’ve got Ipswich as an exception and the teams who came down in Southampton, Leeds and Leicester and you think, ‘OK, where do we fit in there?’.
“We finished six points outside the play-offs last season and had a good season, but when teams come in with bigger budgets and parachute payments, it makes you question where you fit. We will always do the right thing, play the right way, and we want to win matches. I’m not surprised at where we are in the league because I believe in my team.”
Lowe’s confidence in his team is built on history, in his own achievements since joining from then third tier Plymouth Argyle in December 2021, and his reputation as a manager with two promotions (back-to-back from League Two in 2018-19 and 2019-20 with Bury and Plymouth) on his CV.
The evidence is dotted around his office, with framed promotion medals hanging behind his desk and League One and League Two manager of the month awards (he was a combined five of those) on the window sill. He is yet to add the same award as a Championship manager, but an unbeaten August did see him nominated for the award that was won by Leicester’s Enzo Maresca after their 100 per cent start.
On the wall opposite is a tactics board featuring the smiling faces of his players on fridge magnets set up in formation for the next match — the trip to Leicester tonight (Wednesday).
Preston have built an impressive squad with the recruitment of statement signings this summer in Canada international Liam Millar (on loan from Switzerland’s Basel), Will Keane (from Wigan), Duane Holmes (from Huddersfield Town), Milutin Osmajic (from Cadiz of Spain’s La Liga) and Mads Frokjaer (from Odense in Denmark), who have contributed a combined 12 goals and eight assists so far.
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It is a welcome evolution from last season, when Lowe’s side went unbeaten in their first seven league games but struggled mightily in front of goal on that run, scoring only twice and drawing 0-0 five times. They have replicated that strong start over the past two months and have improved the run without a league defeat to eight matches, scoring 13 goals (after managing only three by this stage a year ago) and winning eight more points from the first nine fixtures, making it Preston’s best start to a season since 1903.
“We have changed the way we play a bit, but the methods have always been the same, the approach has been the same and the coaching style has been the same,” Lowe says. “We’ve recruited well and if you look at the squad, the players who we’ve added mean we’ve got two players for each position.
“Last season was weird because of injuries in the first seven games; we couldn’t really score until we brought Tom Cannon in and he hit the ground running. (The 20-year-old January loan signing from Everton scored eight goals in 20 appearances, earning himself a permanent move to Leicester in the summer.)
“Our xG (expected goals) was high in those games, which was pleasing, and I kept saying that it would come and it did. We didn’t win enough games at home and although we finished six points off the play-offs, that wasn’t because of the last six games — it was probably six points we should have picked up earlier in the season. We looked at that, tweaked the formation a bit and recruited well — it’s paying off.”
Frokjaer is among the new arrivals who have impressed, with the Dane scoring the winner in the first home game of the season, a 2-1 defeat of Sunderland, while playing as a No 10 off Alan Browne. The 24-year-old has had a hectic start to life in the UK, with his luggage taking three weeks to arrive after signing in July and his partner still waiting on a visa to be able to travel over to join him.
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“I met Peter (Ridsdale, Preston director) in Denmark,” Frokjaer says. “Preston as well as several other clubs were interested but when Peter flew over it seemed more real.
“Talking with the lads in the first couple of days, they knew the manager and it was easier for me to get a full picture of how he is. Alan Browne and some of the other guys have been here for some time, which makes settling in easier. It’s just about being relaxed about going to a new place; somewhere people seem to enjoy going in to work, which is why they are here for so many years.”
Stability in the dugout has become common at Preston in the past decade, in contrast to the frequent turnover of managers at other Championship clubs.
Since Simon Grayson took the job at then League One side Preston in February 2013, only three permanent managers have occupied the hot seat, a fact which was an appealing prospect to Lowe in his hopes of building a long-term project. Living closer to the family home in Liverpool has been beneficial for the 45-year-old after two years of living 290 miles (466km) away on the south coast while leading Plymouth.
His son, Alfie, also works at the club, assisting the kit man, and the stability of working close to home — despite recent reports linking him with the vacancy at top Scottish side Rangers — means that win, lose or draw, Lowe can “get around the family quick” for a release away from football.
“When I look back, (predecessor) Frankie McAvoy was here for a short spell but Alex (Neil) and Simon Grayson were here for three or four years. We’re in our second year now and we’ve been building slowly,” he says. “There’s pressure that I put on myself to bring the good times back to Preston and we did that in the first few months that I was here; last season we did, but not enough at home. This season we have started to do it, but we want it to continue.
“I’ve learned a lot in terms of setting up against other teams; tactically, how to be a bit more astute and manage games at this level as well as the group. I feel that managing the group as a man-manager is one of my strengths and I treat everyone the same. What you learn on the job is priceless. A lot of managers now don’t get the time to learn or to build.
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“There are legends and heroes who have represented Preston North End and all you want when you’re in the hot seat is to be successful. That’s my goal, to manage in the Premier League, and with that you would become a hero or a legend here, but it’s not why I come in to work every day. I just want to do my best.”
Alongside his coaching staff Mike Marsh, Rob Kelly, Mike Pollitt and Peter Murphy, Lowe has built a culture based on hard work and accountability in the dressing room, with long-term fixtures at the club in captain Browne and Greg Cunningham in charge of imposing the fines.
Players use those funds to pay for the staff to go out for a meal at Christmas, while Lowe is keen to foster relationships with his squad outside of work. Snooker, pool and darts are popular in a games room set up for the players at the training ground, which has helped the likes of Frokjaer feel settled.
“Pretty early on, he showed me a couple of clips of the two No 10s in terms of what he wants for the player,” Frokjaer says. “But the main goal for an offensive player is that the coaches want us to make passes into the final third, get goals and get assists, get on the ball and show some confidence.
“Every manager is different but Ryan is pleasant. I’m still settling in and learning about all the clubs and what they like to do and what their weaknesses are. We try to play our own game and in some games it’s more physical and there are more long balls where I would prefer to keep it on the ground. It’s about trying to have an impact on the game still, even though it’s not my favourite cup of tea sometimes.”
Before that heavy defeat against West Brom, five of Preston’s first seven league games this season saw them come out on top by a single goal, with Frokjaer attributing their winning edge to “enjoying the ride”. Lowe’s principles are simple — a good attitude while playing with a smile are the only measures of success for this season rather than a fixed league position, according to the manager.
“I ask our lads every day about attitude and application,” Lowe says. “They get opportunities every day for a couple of hours to show that and I want them to know that I don’t miss much. When I first came in, there were lads (at the club) who weren’t for me because the standards weren’t good enough and we had to move on. I’ll accept lack of quality at times but never lack of effort.”
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Preston’s list of honours is lengthy but has not needed an update in a while: top division champions twice (most recently in 1889-90), FA Cup winners twice (though not since 1937-38), league and cup double winners in 1888-89, runners-up in the top flight six times (the last of them in 1957-58) and beaten FA Cup finalists on five occasions. The latest of those was as a second-tier club in 1963-64 and they haven’t been in the top flight since relegation at the end of the 1960-61 season. What does Lowe think he can achieve at Deepdale?
“The goal is to finish as high as we can,” he says. “Can we win the Championship? Or finish second? Anyone can. There are teams better equipped than us but we can’t see that as a negative, we’ve got to use it as motivation. We haven’t set any targets, we’ve just said let’s be the best we can be and see where it takes us.”
Among the other targets for Preston is continuing the integration of youth players, a process which has seen regular minutes for left-back Kian Best, who was 17 years old when the season started, and there are hopes of improving the academy status from Category 3 to Category 2.
The short-term goal is to emulate last season’s play-off final winners, Luton Town — the benchmark for clubs on smaller budgets looking to maximise their limited resources to get promoted from the Championship.
“Are we underdogs in the league in terms of where our budget sits? Yeah, we’re probably bottom five or six, but we have the opportunity to be better than that,” Lowe says. “Luton will probably be set for life whatever happens this season and we would be too if it ever happened because of the way the club is run.
“Every manager and every young player dreams of getting to the top flight, so why can’t you dream? Why can’t we keep doing things right to see where it takes you?”.
(Top photo: Lowe and Frokjaer. Photos: Getty Images)
