Ryan Lowe's arrival at Preston North End sees the slate wiped clean says skipper Alan Browne

Many of the players came to PNE during the tenures of Frankie McAvoy and Alex Neil – Browne one of a handful to pre-date the two Scots.

Ryan Lowe is the new man in charge, a different set of hands on the wheel.

It’s very much a regime change in the way it was four-and-a-half years ago when Neil arrived with McAvoy as his assistant.

Neil was the boss for the majority of that time before McAvoy’s relatively short stint in charge which ended on Monday.

The voice on the training pitch is now Scouse rather than Scots, Lowe tasked with the job of sparking 18th-placed North End into life.

On Saturday the PNE faithful will meet Lowe for the first time at the game against Barnsley at Deepdale (3pm).

Browne said: “Probably 90 to 95% of the boys weren’t here before Alex or Frankie, so to have the slate wiped clean is good for them.

“When Alex moved on and Frankie took over, there might have been some lads who thought he would have the same ideas and probably play the same players every week.

“Now someone new has come in, a completely fresh person, it is a clean slate for everyone.

“Even if you weren’t getting in the squad, it is your chance to impress.

“Even though the first session we had with the gaffer on Wednesday was meant to be a light one, you could you that everyone was at it.

“That is the way it should be, you need to train as you play. The boys have to take that on board.

“That is the gaffer wants, they are the standards we have to set ourselves.”

The PNE squad started the week with McAvoy in charge, the Scot taking Monday’s training session.

His dismissal came that evening and by Tuesday afternoon Lowe was in the building.

He had the squad in on Wednesday so he could make a quick start to the job of getting his ideas and message over to them.

It meant their day off went by the wayside but that was a small sacrifice to pay in the grand scheme of things.

Wednesday was a short burst of training following a presentation by the new boss, Browne enjoying the work – even though the weather was miserable.

Said Browne: “You could see the structure and the way he wants to play straight away.

“He wants us to work it out from the back, he has ways to get out and move the ball forward.

“The gaffer wants the ball going forward as much as possible. If that isn’t on, we recycle and go again.

“He’s trying to make it easier, football is not a hard game. Us players make it hard for ourselves at times.

“We just need to take the information on board and we’ll benefit from it.

“The weather during the first session was bad, at times you couldn’t see the ball because it was raining so hard.

“He’s done a lot on the board inside before we went out, so he also got his message across that way.”

At his press conference on Tuesday shortly after taking over, Lowe spoke of his attacking intent and the need to ‘take the shackles off’ a couple of the PNE players.

Lowe said he wanted to ‘attack with six and defend with four’ in a 3-5-2 shape. As a player whose best form has come as a No.10, Browne should suit that.

“It’s not so much the numbers, but the way he wants us to get forward,” Browne said.

“The patterns of play we have gone through so far, allowed us to get into some good positions and create scoring chances.

“I’m not saying that is going to work every week but looking at some of his ideas, that is something we have been lacking recently. It’s not rocket science what he has been doing to get through to us.

“We’ve got a big game against Barnsley who have been struggling. No one in this league gives you an easy ride though.”

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