Ryan Lowe happy to see Preston North End players given contracts in return for hard work

The Lilywhites agreed a fresh two-year deal with Andrew Hughes this week, the defender having reached the last six months of his contract.

Patrick Bauer, Tom Barkhuizen and Scott Sinclair are three others who will be out of contract this summer.

Lowe will have his say as part of contract negotiations and operates on the basis of player and club doing right by one another.

“The ones who are performing on a weekly basis, we want to make sure we secure their contracts,” Lowe told the Lancashire Post.

“They are governed by what we want to do, we want to make sure they are still hungry. The players whose contracts are up at the end of the season have still got six months so there is no major rush.

“We have some targets and objectives on the pitch which we want to try and get to.

“I say to all players whether they are in contract or out of contract, do well by me as a manager and by the football club and I’ll make sure myself and the football club will do well by you.

“Make sure nothing comes away from the football and you’re still doing the business.”

Lowe takes North End to face Cardiff in the third round of the FA Cup tomorrow.

The majority of the squad have been able to train this week after the Covid outbreak over Christmas, with some injuries having cleared up too.

Barkhuizen and Matthew Olosunde are two who are back from injury, giving Lowe his first look at them on the Euxton training pitches.

Lowe has had a month in the PNE job, and it has certainly been eventful. Two games and two wins but 23 days apart, with a Covid shutdown in between, has kept Lowe thinking on his feet.

Said Lowe: “When I got the job I did my homework and studied the group.

“I looked at the positions they could play in, the type of characters they are, the ones I could give a rollicking to, the ones I couldn’t do that to.

“I found out who I could pick the brains of around the training ground.

“It’s about progress and we have a plan and strategy of where we want to get to.

“Sometimes when you take over at a club it comes early, sometimes it takes a little while to get going.

“We’ve been lucky enough to get two wins, one at home and one away. We had three cancelled games, I don’t know how they would have gone.

“I’m learning every day about the group, I’ve learned a lot already, I know about the training ground and I know a lot about Preston North End as a club.”