Preston North End player column: Jordan Storey on Ryan Lowe's appointment and the departure of Frankie McAvoy

You have to respect what Frankie tried to do here, he’s a great bloke and I wish him well as do all the lads in the squad.

It was a bit of a shock when he left on Monday but unfortunately that is the life of a manager these days and the way football seems to be.

Straight away the new gaffer has got down to work and made it clear what he wants and expects from us.

Our first training session with him was on Wednesday and it absolutely poured down with rain.

But despite the conditions all the lads really enjoyed the session he put on and he gave us glimpses of what he wants in games.

This is a spell when we will all be looking to impress the gaffer and he will be wanting to make an impression on us.

Every player in the squad will want to show him what they are capable of, prove that they are worth a place in the side.

The gaffer is getting his ideas across, how he wants to improve us as a team.

He’s clearly a manager with an attacking style and he wants us to attack more than we were doing, build the play more.

The more time he spends with us on the training pitch, the more his message will come across and we can put into play what he wants.

This is a fresh start for everyone. The last change of manager saw Frankie replace Alex Neil, Frankie having worked under Alex.

So we knew Frankie well and he knew us.

This is different, a new manager has come in from another club, he hasn’t worked with any of us before.

I’m sure some of the other lads have had similar changes at their previous clubs but this is new to me.

At Exeter,I worked under just one manager in Paul Tisdale who was there for 10 years or so.

Frankie’s last game in charge was at Blackburn and we should have got a better result from it.

I was a bit surprised that the game started because of the condition of the pitch.

On the right hand side of the pitch especially, there were puddles of water and the ball couldn’t run.

It was hard to kick the ball more than a couple of yards along the ground before it held up in the water.

That said, in the first half I thought we handled the conditions far better than Blackburn did. We were the better side, had more of the ball and even though we didn’t create loads of chances, we should have gone in ahead at half-time.

The rain eased off in the second half, it was more just drizzle, and that made sure the pitch didn’t get any wetter and made sure the game finished.

It was so disappointing to concede the goal and not be able to find an equaliser.

We start afresh under the new manager with a home game against Barnsley.

We want to start well under him so in my eyes this is a must-win game.

I’ve got good memories of playing against Barnsley because I scored against them at Deepdale at the end of last season.

We’ve generally been good at home this season, it’s been away where we have struggled. Hopefully this is the start of better things.

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