Everything Ryan Lowe said on Leicester City, Preston North End team news and travel plan

Preston North End face their potentially toughest test of the season on Wednesday night, when they head to Leicester City.

The Lilywhites sit third in the table prior to the midweek round of fixtures in the Championship, while the Foxes are top of the pile having won eight of their nine matches. Enzo Maresca’s men have made a strong start to the campaign after Leicester’s relegation from the Premier League - and Lowe is under no illusions as to the challenge ahead.

Preston will stay on the road after the game - spending Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in a hotel as they then prepare for Ipswich Town away on Saturday. It’s a tough week on paper for PNE, who take on the top two sides in the division and will look to bounce back from last weekend’s thrashing against West Brom.

Here is what Lowe had to say in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday morning.

You wanted smiles on Monday morning from the players, did you get that?

“It was excellent, yeah,” said Lowe. “That is what you want; you don’t want anyone coming in with their head tipping. Sometimes, as the manager, you are disappointed - but I went home on Saturday night and was analysing the game in my head, driving home. I thought: ‘Do you know what? How can I be disheartened with what the lads have given us?’ It is never going to be the case. If there is one of those every eight or nine games I will take that, because it’ll show that we’re performing well and only getting three or four of those performances in a season. But, the lads have been terrific and rightly so - they came in with smiles on their faces and that’s what I wanted.”

What is key to getting a result on Wednesday night? You have Jamie Vardy to try and stop along with several other big names

“There are plenty of other names, not just Vardy,” laughed Lowe. “But listen, tactically we will do what we need to do. We put stuff into the players tactically yesterday and we will do that again today. And then look, we know it is a tough place to go, but they are only human. They have got some good players so we’ve got to be at our best and they’ve probably got to not be at their best. But, it won’t be for the lack of trying - we will go there with a game plan and try to bring it to fruition, definitely.”

On going to watch Leicester at Blackburn on Sunday, Lowe added: “It is different because you see everything live and you see the reactions and how it works. But, I think the detail most people go into on the opposition now - and I’m sure Enzo will be the same with us - you have to do it. If you are lazy in your work and don’t do the work, then you are not going to get a positive result or performance. The work we have to put in to make sure we get that is big - and that started Sunday.

“They are a fantastic outfit, have come down from the Premier League and are in our league for a reason. We will respect them but we can’t fear them; we need to make sure we try and go toe-to-toe. They open the pitch up big, basically attack with five or six and defend with a couple. It is going to be a tough encounter, we know that because they have quality players, but so have we on our day - as everyone knows. We are going there with no pressure, wanting to pit our wits against a team who’ve just come down.”

What does Thursday and Friday look like for you and the squad?

“We will stay over on Wednesday and recover on Thursday in the hotel,” said Lowe. “We will then travel down to Ipswich and train - at a secret training ground. I won’t tell you where in case anyone comes to watch us! Bielsa... And then we will train Friday afternoon and continue at the hotel. So listen, it will be good for the lads as well - to spend a little bit of time with each other over the next few days and us as staff, picking each other’s brains.

“If you get a good result on Wednesday and roll into Saturday, we’ve then got another international break. But, I think I must say and stress that these next two games don’t define our season. We are in a fantastic position; we’ve had a fantastic start. As you know, in the Championship, it goes like this (up and down) and the more level and stable you can be, the better of course. The Championship can rock up many results, can’t it? We are going to Leicester and Ipswich respectively with a positive mindset and positive attitude.”

On the travel arrangements, Lowe added: “You’ve got to do things right. We gave the lads the option to say what they wanted to do and how we wanted to go about it. They came up with wanting to stay down and stay together. So yeah, we will spend a lot of time with each other and we’ll have a bit of free time to go out for some food together. The camaraderie and togetherness is different class, but it always nice to spend those few days with each other and it’s always a little bit better when you get positive results - which we’ll be looking to do.”

Any changes to the squad from Saturday?

“No, everyone is fine,” said Lowe. “All good. We will get through today and then know, but what we had at the weekend will be the same. As I have said before, Emil (Riis) and Ched (Evans) are not far off. After the international break, hopefully the two of them will be back in contention.”