Preston North End boss wants bragging rights with Lancashire derby against Blackburn Rovers next up

PNE travel to Ewood Park this afternoon, 12pm, for their first meeting with their Lancashire rivals this season.

Blackburn won both games last season, 1-0 at Ewood and 4-1 at Deepdale, but go into the game having not played since November 12 due to the World Cup in Qatar.

The importance of the game is not lost on the PNE manager, who has already tasted defeat in a derby once this season.

He said: "It's a big derby game and we want to go there and entertain and get a result. Blackburn are in the same position as us, they've had a month off and a couple of friendlies.

"Time will well. Going into a game like a derby of that magnitude with the bragging rights for the fans is massive. That's probably going to be our aim, making sure we put on a performance.”

North End will be hoping that their preparations for the game are enough after playing two behind closed doors friendlies over the enforced break for the World Cup in Qatar.

Lowe’s men played against Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone and Premier League outfit Leeds United. The PNE boss took the opportunity to experiment but also to use some of the younger players within his squad.

He said: “They were good run outs. The first one against St Johnstone was two teams, two 45s. The second one against Leeds was relatively strong in the first half and then a lot of the kids played the second half.

"They had two strong teams, two Premier League teams, I must say. But it was a good run out for us, it was a good test. They were different games.

"We tried something in the St Johnstone game which we think worked and then we tried something else in the Leeds game where we knew we wouldn't have large parts of the ball which worked to an extent.

"The games were more to get minutes into the lads and try one or two things we feel we can get better at.”