Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe responds to 'disgusting' and 'vile' abuse received after 2-1 defeat to Bristol City

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe felt he received ‘disgusting’ and ‘vile’ abuse in the wake of his side’s 2-1 defeat to Bristol City at Deepdale.
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PNE were behind in the game after just six minutes as Mark Sykes got on the end of a short backpass from Robbie Brady to round Freddie Woodman and open the scoring.

Nahki Wells stole away behind the North End defence to cross for Sam Bell to double their lead in the final seconds of the first half.

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Ched Evans netted in the second half but it was not enough for North End to take anything from the game, making it five defeats in a row at Deepdale.

Preston North End manager Ryan LowePreston North End manager Ryan Lowe
Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe

The home side were met with boos at half time and there were plenty of disgruntled fans after the match too. Lowe chose to walk straight down the tunnel after the game but there were supporters close enough to him to tell the PNE boss what they thought.

“It's disheartening because it's not nice,” Lowe said. “I'm a human being and I'm trying my hardest for this football club. There are a few things that have been said that are disgusting. They pay their hard earned money but I'm not here to be abused, I'm here to try and get the football club to where they're trying to get to and my players are not here to be abused.

"It's not all of them, it's probably a small minority, but booing the lads at half time, I don't think half time warranted boos. We were well in the game albeit we gifted them two goals but the lads have to go in and hear that and then come out in the second half, I thought they reacted great.

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"They didn't boo at the end as such because they knew they were trying to get back into it but a couple of the shouts that get said on the side, I'm a human being and I don't need to get spoken to like that and my players don't either. I get the frustration, I do, because we haven't won at home and whatnot but we're mid table and we're a mid table club trying to push to be better.

"The home form hasn't warranted us to be pushing on. If you look at the positives, we're four points outside the play-offs and we're thinking this is probably the season to jump in but unfortunately at this moment in time we're not good enough to break into that right now.

"Whether that changes over the next few weeks remains to be seen. I get some frustration, I don't get the vile abuse we're getting. I'm not here to take that and my players certainly are. I get frustration, not the vile abuse.”

The defeat sees Preston fall back towards mid table and they are currently four points off the top six.

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It’s something Lowe is aware of as he searched for positives after the defeat, although he felt his side was better value than their loss.

He said: “I thought the performance warranted at least a point if not three, which sounds crazy when we've just lost 2-1 but you can't legislate for mistakes and individual errors. It is what it is, it's just football.

"I thought the reaction from our lads was fantastic and then to concede a goal which is sloppy, well both goals really, but we can deal with it before it even gets there.

"I thought we created loads of chances, we were on the front foot, we turned them quite a bit and then it was a matter of putting the ball in the back of the net. To go in 2-0 down gives you a mountain to climb. If you go in at 1-0 and it's a mistake you can try and rectify it and go out and give it your best which we did. 2-0 is a mountain to climb but I thought the lads left everything out there towards the end to try and get it back.”