Preston North End boss says they will be facing the 'cream of the crop' as Sheffield United come to Deepdale

The Blades come to Deepdale this weekend in the Championship, 3pm, sitting top of the table and are unbeaten in their last eight league games since losing on the opening day, winning six and drawing two.

They’re the second recently relegated side to face PNE this week, having drawn 1-1 with Burnley on Tuesday. The Yorkshire side finished fifth last season and Lowe was full of praise for Paul Heckingbottom’s side.

”They're the cream of the crop at the moment, they're very well coached,” he said.

"They have a good manager in Paul Heckingbottom, he took over the reins in the Premier League for a few games and then got the gig last season.

"It was probably a little bit too late in his eyes because of where he got them to in the play-offs, if he had been able to coach them his way a little bit longer I'm sure they wouldn't have been in this division.

"Their aim this season is just to go straight up, I hope they don't have a good game on Saturday then I wish them all the best until we play them again. He does things properly and in the right way and they have some fantastic talent. Large parts of their players have played in the Premier League and they're definitely a good footballing team.”

Lowe will have plenty of options to choose from today, with only Ben Woodburn ruled out for the game. The Welshman will be out for another couple of weeks yet but is the only man in the squad the Lilywhites’ manager cannot call upon.

He said: “We're all good, Ben Woodburn is actually on the grass towards the end of the week so that is good news for him. Other than that we're all fit and firing.

"Bambo did a bit of extra work behind the scenes, an extra session, so we're all fit. We're going to need everyone.

"The international break will mean we can get extra work into some that need it. Some will go on international duty and hopefully we get them all back in one piece and kick on after that.”