'If you said to me' - Ex-Liverpool star supports Ryan Lowe amid Preston North End struggles

Mark Lawrenson believes his old club Preston North End are right for sticking with manager Ryan Lowe.

The former Liverpool defender was born in Preston and is a Lilywhites supporter. Lawrenson saw his team pick up 20 points from their first eight games of the season, but it's now three wins and eight defeats in 15 for North End. Preston were beaten 1-5 at home to Watford last time out and there were boos for the PNE boss at full time.

This week, frustration escalated after Lowe's pre-match press conference - making the festive run of fixtures all the more important. Preston take on Swansea City on Friday night before a huge Boxing Day test, at home to Leeds United. For now, though, Lawrenson wants to see North End continue to back Lowe.

Speaking to Paddy Power, he said: “Ryan Lowe is still the right man for the Preston job. One of the problems has been that the first seven games, they won nearly all of them. If he’d lost seven games, and now accrued the number of points that he’s got, people would think it’s completely different.

"Cardiff beat them with two goals at the death. Southampton scored really late, and that’s more points gone. If you said to me at the start of season they would be where they are now [8th], I would’ve said that’s about right. The other thing is that Peter Ridsdale has been in football a long time, he knows what they’ve got there, and they should be around sixth but they’re not far away.

"The big problem with Preston is that when the game finishes, you have to walk that length of the halfway line all the way back to the dressing room. On Saturday, you could hear people chanting ‘do the right thing’ and similar – it's just passion. Do you then sack the manager, pay him off, get a new manager in? At that level in the Championship, they’re not going to be relegated and they know that – I wouldn’t talk at all.”

Mark Lawrenson was speaking to Paddy Power