Preston North End skipper Alan Browne refuses to get swept away by play-off talk

PNE are just four points off the top six and have lost just once in 11 league games under Lowe, with the manager himself admitting he is looking up at the play-offs.

Browne, who has played a part of plenty of play-off challenges over the last seven years at Championship level is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “We’re not yet talking about the top six, we set a goal for ourselves when the gaffer came in and we’re near that goal.

“Once we reach it we might have a look over it again in a little review of where we could finish up.

“At the moment we just want to keep winning games, keep clean sheets and make sure we’re a hard team to beat.

“Overall it has been a good spell of games for us and we look to improve on that again.

“We’ve really picked up and got ourselves right up that table from the bad patch that we were in. It’s good when you’re talking about winning games.

“Having been in the league quite a long time, it is a big ask but there is always a team that has a late charge and we definitely want to be that team.

“With the performances at the start of the season you may be asking a bit too much but once we reach our goals we will be looking to push on again.

“You never know, this league is mad so we’ll keep going right until the end so we’ll see what happens.”

The loan signing of Cameron Archer has breathed new life into PNE, with three goals in six games so far.

Fellow loanees Daniel Iversen and Sepp van den Berg have also stood out with their performances but are only at Deepdale on a temporary basis. Regardless of this season, Browne feels there is potential for the future for this squad under Lowe.

He said: “I’d like to think we’re well set but then you could lose players like Sepp, Dan and Cam, so you’re losing quite a big part of your squad.

“I’m sure we’ll recruit in the summer no matter where we finish up.

“The gaffer does not seem to be the type to rush into getting a player, he wants the players to come in and fit his system – he knows what he wants.

“We’ll have to wait and see, we’ll keep going right until the end this season and see what happens. 

“I’d love it for them to stay – seeing players leave the team when we’re almost reaching something is a tough one to take.

“You just don’t know in football. People might come back, we might get players coming in and improving even more, you never know.”