Preston North End manager to 'mither' Aston Villa counterpart Steven Gerrard in a bid to land loan striker again

The PNE manager revealed to fans that he had spoken to his pal Gerrard on Monday this week about Archer and would maintain the dialogue in the weeks ahead.

Villa loanee Archer was a hot topic of conversation at the meet the manager evening at Deepdale when Lowe addressed some of the PNE faithful in the Greats’ Room.

It was the first time Lowe had been able to meet the fans in such circumstances and been keen to do so for a while as he continues to build-up a strong rapport with them.

Asked by a supporter about the chances of loaning Archer again next season, Lowe said: “I’m definitely keen to get him back.

"I’ve spoken with Stevie about him and I will continue to mither the life out of him! Stevie’s got a job to do so I can’t do it all the time.”

Lowe and Gerrard are good friends, going back to their younger days at Liverpool, and Lowe has never hidden the fact that friendship was a factor in getting Archer to Deepdale in January – along with other things.

Archer has scored five goals in 12 appearances for North End and was back in the England Under-20s squad last night for a clash with Germany after illness forced him to pull out of last Friday’s friendly in Poland.

"I’ve known about Cam for some time, before he went on loan to Solihull Moors and did well there,” said Lowe.

"It was fortunate that Stevie is my mate and manager of Aston Villa, otherwise Cam could have gone to Cardiff or Derby, or somewhere else.

"I had to present to Cam what we could do here.

"I think it helped that I signed his brother from non-league for Bury and there’s the connection with his agent as well.”

In terms of two other loan players – Sepp van den Berg and Daniel Iversen – Lowe admitted it was a case of waiting to see how things worked out in the summer.

Addressing a fan’s question about Van den Berg, Lowe said: “Ultimately it will be down to Sepp and what he wants to do.

"He’s been at Liverpool quite a long time now and not played many games for them. It might be that he wants to find a permanent home.

"But I would have thought that if he is still at Liverpool next season and available for loan, we would definitely be one of the options.

"If Liverpool want to loan him out, it won’t just be us interested.”

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