Preston North End loan striker's season continues back at Aston Villa

The 20-year-old striker is back at Aston Villa after his successful loan spell with PNE in which he scored seven goals – including the winner against Blackpool in April.

Villa still have three games of their Premier League campaign left and while Archer can’t feature in those, he is training with Steven Gerrard’s squad until the season finishes.

It is a chance for Gerrard to run the rule over Archer and see the progress he made in his three-and-a-half months at Deepdale.

Archer is one of a number of players Villa have loaned out and it is their intention to have those loanees do pre-season with them before making decisions on where they play their football next season.

North End would love Archer back on loan for the 2022/23 campaign and have made no secret of that.

Ryan Lowe has spoken with Gerrard on the subject but accepts he will have to be patient.

Last summer PNE played a similar waiting game for Daniel Iversen, the goalkeeper spending much of the pre-season with Leicester before a loan move back to Deepdale was completed.

Archer was one of two incoming pieces of business done in the January transfer window by North End, Bambo Diaby the other.

He got the game time he desired, starting 18 games and coming off the bench in two others.

The first of his seven goals came 11 minutes into his debut against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns – he’d come on as a substitute in the second half.

Four of Archer’s goals were winners, against Hull, Peterborough, Blackpool and Queens Park Rangers, the one against QPR on April 9 his last in PNE colours.

His performance levels did drop towards the end of the season but he performed well at Barnsley on Gentry Day and was on song on the final day of the season against Middlesbrough.

He set up the third goal for Emil Riis with a through ball, then earned the penalty for PNE’s fourth – also scored by Riis – when his shot was handled on the line by Boro defender Paddy McNair.

Ryan Lowe salutes 21-goal PNE striker Emil Riis