'Will be watching this!' - Ryan Lowe dodges big Norwich City question as Preston North End boost outlined

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe was in no mood to give Norwich City any hints over his team selection for Saturday’s huge clash.

The Lilywhites were 4-1 winners over Huddersfield Town in midweek - a victory inspired by super substitute, Milutin Osmajic. The Montenegrin came off the bench, with 15 minutes to play, and scored a seven minute hat-trick at Deepdale. The big question now, ahead of Saturday’s crunch fixture in the play-off race, is whether Osmajic will earn a starting spot.

“I am not telling you... the (Norwich) manager will be watching this!” said Lowe, to BBC Lancashire. “No, listen, he has done fantastically well. Again, we’ll get the lads in. Emil (Riis) was looking a bit tired and whatnot, but he’s been excellent. They then just sort of get a breath of fresh air from somewhere - and they go again.

“So, we will recover the lads as best as we possibly can and hopefully, touch wood, there are no niggling injuries. It looks fine. And hopefully we will have a body or two back, for the weekend, which will strengthen us a bit more. We will just have a right good go on Saturday.”

The Huddersfield game was a must win for North End and it’s the same again this weekend, if PNE are to keep themselves in the hunt for sixth spot. Lowe is well aware of Norwich’s quality and threat as a team, but takes confidence from Preston’s improved form at home this campaign.

"Is that 11 wins now, at Deepdale?” said Lowe. “And 63 points - what we were on at the end of last season - with five games to go. We have scored 56 goals; we only scored (45). It’s a lot of progression and I will keep saying it until I am blue in the face. That's what we want. We are battling against teams who are up there, but we’ve got a real togetherness with that group and staff in there. We will just keep fighting until the end and see where it takes us.

“But as long as I see some progression in the job we are doing, it’s going the right way - and long may that continue. Who knows? We’ve got another five games to play and 15 points to play for. Can we win all five? There's definitely some 60-40 games against us in there, but there are definitely some 50-50s in there. We will just keep doing what we need to do and look no further than the next one, which is Norwich.”