Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe knew exactly what he'd get from Everton's Tom Cannon

Cannon has two goals in his last three games for PNE, although he did struggle to find the net when he first joined the club.

The Everton loanee, who is away from his parent club for the first time in his career, was still contributing for North End however and started each of the first nine games whilst at Deepdale before being rested for the trip to Watford at the start of the month.

Lowe was seen watching the Toffees' youth side in November, at the time passing it off as his son wanting to watch Paris Saint Germain, Everton’s opponents on the day. Instead, he was scoping out Cannon who had interest from League One clubs.

His form for Preston has seen him called up to the Republic of Ireland U21s for the first time in his career and Lowe thinks he has seen improvements from the 20-year-old already, as he becomes more acclimatised to the demands of Championship football.

He said: “You know goalscorers when you see them and I think he's just a natural goalscorer. It was disappointing that he went on his longest drought since the age of eight but credit to Tom, I always knew when I saw him play what he'd give us with his pace and strength in behind.

"Even his ball retention is getting better now which we felt we needed to work on, in the Championship you can't turn the ball over at the top end of the pitch. He's getting better at that and ultimately he's scoring goals which is what he's judged on.”