‘We just felt’ - Ryan Lowe makes Liam Delap admission ahead of Hull City man’s reunion with Preston

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe knows his side will have to watch out for a familiar face on Saturday afternoon.

The Lilywhites head to Hull City looking to get back to winning ways, after conceding a 96th minute equaliser at home to Southampton on Wednesday night. Preston are back on the road and in Liam Rosenior’s lineup will likely be Liam Delap, who of course spent last season on loan with PNE. Delap scored one goal in 15 appearances for North End.

On the back of that spell, Hull swooped in for Delap this summer and the Manchester City man made the third loan move of his career. He was on the score sheet for the Tigers in their midweek win at Birmingham City - his fourth strike in Hull colours so far this campaign. Lowe thinks highly of the striker and is glad to see him thriving, despite North End not returning to the table for him in the last transfer window.

"Yeah I have (been impressed)," said Lowe. "I'm made up for Liam, to be fair, because when he came to us I thought he sort of had that game against Birmingham - where he did really well. He then had a couple of chances and I know he scored a couple of goals late on. But, he was just unfortunate that he didn't get off to a flyer. I remember saying to him and Tom (Cannon) that whoever scores first will get off to a flyer.

“And obviously Tom did and went on to score eight goals. But, Liam was fantastic - his attitude and application was different class, so I am pleased to see him doing well. Hopefully not too well tomorrow, but I will have a quick chat with him when I see him. He's a great kid with a great future ahead of him. Whether we were to bring him back or not, we just felt that a fresher start for him (would be better) - to go somewhere else. And to be fair, he's obviously gone to Hull and is doing extremely well. So, fair play to him: great kid, great professional and very good player."

The visit to the MKM Stadium will mark the end of October for PNE. It’s been a pretty gruelling month, with North End losing to Leicester City and Ipswich Town while drawing against Millwall and Southampton. Lowe, though, will not be too glad to see the back of the month as he expects the challenges to remain just as tough.

"No not really!" said Lowe. "We've still got a bit of it to go, with tomorrow. And then next week goes into November, but I don't look at the fixtures in that way to be honest and go: 'That's a tough month' or anything like that, because they are all tough aren't they? A lot of people wouldn't have had us to potentially beat Southampton; I know we drew. And then a lot of people would've probably expected us to beat Millwall, so I don't look at that. I just look at every team being so different and tough to put game plans together for. That is the challenge to me and the coaching staff, but we love it and the lads love it - because they take it to fruition. Every game is a tough challenge, it doesn't matter who you are playing.”