Preston North End boss wants new striker to give spark but praises back line

North End had the best chances of the game but could not find a way to open the scoring in PR1, whilst their visitors Hull did not trouble.

Lowe is still short a couple of positions in his sqaud, with the transfer window still open, and feels he needs the ‘something out of nothing’ striker he has previously talked about to make the difference.

He said: “We were missing that sort of striker, it's as simple as that. If you've got someone that could pull something out of the bag.

"I thought we had a few good shots from the edge of the box today. We need to make sure we're hitting the target and that is something that I'll be driving home to the players because if something comes out to the edge of the box it's a free shot.

"We work on shooting, finishing and crossing most days. We worked on a lot of crossing this week, from Tuesday to Friday, because we thought we could get those types of balls into the box - it certainly created some chances.”

Though goals so far have been a little hard to come by for PNE, keeping them out seems not problem.

The backline of Freddie Woodman, Jordan Storey, Liam Lindsay and Andrew Hughes contains just one regular from last season.

Lowe said: “Credit to the boys. I said to Jordan when he went out on loan last season to go and perform to the level that we feel he is capable of.

"The club have invested heavily in him. As for Liam Lindsay, I had numerous chats with him towards the back end of the season and he came in and played a few.

"In this pre-season I said to him 'you're too good to not be playing,' along with Patrick Bauer - the two middle centre backs are fantastic.

"Then Hughesy is Hughesy. For them to make that their own and to be solid and resolute, we've worked with them all pre-season to make sure they've got that, with Fred as well, and whoever it is in the no.4. They've really looked solid.”