Play-off dream back on for Preston North End ahead of new Championship campaign

Since his appointment, Ryan Lowe has said all the right things and so far has been backing up what he’s been saying.

Their style of football is attacking, they like to keep the ball and entertain – and he’s got fans back in the stadium.

The almost 12,000 season ticket holders, the most in some time in PR1, can atest to that and they would not be attending if not for his impressive impact on and off the pitch – as well as a good early bird deal.

But what then should be expected of Lowe and his men?

Last season Lowe was appointed with North End in 19th place early on in December, he got them to 13th for when the season finished although they had of course also been higher and lower in between.

There were a couple of weeks where the play-offs were talked about although that did always seem a step too far, particularly in his first six months in charge.

Had the season started the day he took over, they’d have finished ninth, only Middlesbrough and Millwall did better than North End outside of the sides that finished in the top six.

That bodes well going into this campaign and shows that there is certainly potential in this PNE squad with Lowe in charge.

That isn’t to say that the squad is young and needs harnessing, but instead the 43-year-old has shown that he is capable of improving players that are already established.

Daniel Johnson and Brad Potts are two good examples of that, with the former out of the side before his appointment and the latter at a crossroads in his Preston career.

Both became key players for the second half of last season and look set for similar roles again this campaign.

The task for each team each summer is to improve on the squad they had last season and the jury is still out on that front for PNE.

When Daniel Iversen and Sepp van den Berg came back on loan for the second times, we knew what North End would get.

Freddie Woodman is proven at this level so there should be no issue in goal but without a new centre half, there is extra pressure on Jordan Storey to finally nail down a spot at the back.

Cameron Archer’s loan seems to have been replaced, in part, with that of Troy Parrott whose only time at Championship level did not go as planned. A promising season in League One last time out could propel him the second tier now but time will tell.

The left side has seen the most improvement. Robbie Brady looks a shrewd signing and there is lots of positive talk surrounding Alvaro Fernandez despite him still being a relatively unknown quality.

Off the back of a 13th place finish last season the minimum goal should be to break into the top half off recent form, and with a couple more additions wanted too, the play-offs shouldn’t be out of reach if they can find more consistency.