Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe hints at changes for Salford City clash

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe wil make a few changes to his side in their clash against Salford City in the Carabao Cup this evening. The Lilywhites could shake up their starting XI to give some minutes to some of their youngsters and fringe players to freshen things up.

However, their manager has insisted they cannot underestimate their upcoming opponents. The Ammies make the trip to Deepdale on the back of their 2-0 away win at Forest Green Rovers on the opening day of the new League Two season over the weekend after goals by Conor McAleny and Matt Smith.

Preston are taking on a Salford side who reached the fourth tier play-offs last term and who are aiming for promotion to League One in this campaign. Their manager, Neil Wood, used to work in the coaching set-up at Manchester United.

Lowe knows this clash won’t be a walk in the park for his side and has told the club website: “There will be a couple of changes of course because we’ve got to make sure we freshen up, but we feel like the changes we’re making are still solid to potentially progress.

“We can’t underestimate Salford of course because they’ve done alright last season. They’ve got a young coach who’s playing a good brand of football and we know where they’re trying to get to, so we’ve got to make sure there’s no slip ups with there being a bit of a cup upset because we don’t want that.

“There’s a few young lads who probably need a bit more gametime as well and a few lads that need some more minutes so we’ll look into that and factor it into the team we pick today, but as I say we feel we’ll be strong enough to get a result.

“I expect a good footballing team coming to stamp their authority down and that’s what we’ve got to be careful of. I’ve been an underdog as a League Two manager up against a Championship team and there’s loads of factors that come with it.

“They’ve obviously got owners that are desperately trying to get out of League Two and get up to League One and then the Championship – that’s no secret of theirs.”

In terms of team news for Preston, summer recruit Calvin Ramsay could make his competitive debut. Greg Cunningham and Layton Stewart remain out of action for now.