Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe explains absence of Daniel Johnson and sends message to the rest of his squad

North End were beaten thanks to a hat-trick from Clarets winger Nathan Tella as he nodded in the opener in the first half before adding a quick-fire double on 55 and 58 minutes respectively.

Lowe made one change to his side from their last game, an enforced one due to Ched Evans’ suspension. He had more fit players than places in the squad and opted to omit Johnson from his plans on the day.

It was a big call for the PNE boss given the Jamaican’s eight years of service at Deepdale, with over 300 appearances to his name, but Lowe explained his reasoning and sent a message to the rest of his squad.

“He's fit and available, so is Bambo Diaby and so is Patrick Bauer,” Lowe said. “Today I felt we had two wing backs that could come on the pitch, we had Ben Whiteman to potentially secure it up as a four, we had a striker to come on the pitch, obviously you need a goalkeeper and a defender.

"He is a big player and maybe it's an opportunity to get a chance to put it right. Everyone has had opportunities to perform to the levels. Lads who played today, lads who are out of the squad.

"My message to the group now is when the opportunities come back around, make sure you take them.”

North End were outplayed by Burnley on the day with the league leaders comfortably making it 10 wins on the spin in the Championship, equalling a record.

When asked whether he got things right on the day, Lowe needed more time to digest the game and rewatch to see where things went wrong.

He said: “I won't know until I reflect, I won't know until I watch it back. The group that have played and the players that have come on the pitch, they don't lack effort.

"The effort is there, we're probably just lacking a bit of quality, a bit of decision making and maybe one or two are lacking a bit of quality which we'll address. We'll look to put it right on Wednesday.”