Everything Ryan Lowe said on Preston North End’s gut wrenching 2-2 draw with Southampton

On enjoying the courage shown by his team

“I did and I said it to the players before the game,” said Lowe. “We got them together and I just said: ‘Look, I will stand by you 24/7, every day of the week as good footballers. But, I just want you to show a little bit more heart’. We’ve got lads who show heart every day; we’ve got lads who show heart in a different way. We’ve got lads who put tackles in every day in training and we’ve got lads who’ll pull out of tackles, but I just wanted a little bit of bravery in our tackles and with and without the ball. They certainly gave us all of that and we were just undone by a late, sloppy goal on our behalf. But, more importantly undone by a decision which could’ve helped us get the three points.”

On Milutin Osmajic’s contribution and the confidence boost it will give him

“He’s quite a confident boy anyway!” said Lowe. “We still have to get young Felipe (Rodriguez-Gentile) to help us with some (language) stuff, but once he was up there with another striker in Keano, we told him to stay in behind. And when the ball comes out, he smashes those balls - he is like Emil (Riis) with the way he hits them. He can’t half hit them. A little deflection helped it on the way in, but a fantastic strike. He has been suffering with a sore throat, but he is a warrior and doesn’t want to miss training or games. It was a must and a need to get another striker on to the pitch. I was bringing Ben Woodburn on at half time, to get into the ten position, but then something just told me to change and put another striker on. Woody has been on absolute fire in training and it’s just waiting for that opportunity.”

On the 4-2-3-1 formation used on the night

“I think I’ve said that we have to adapt,” said Lowe. “We used it against Leicester and were very good for 60 minutes, then in the second half against Ipswich we used it. We know we can go into that and we’ve got to be cautious when coming up against those teams with a front three. Putting their front three up against our three centre-backs, it can cause problems of course. We just felt the change of shape, still having two holding midfielders and them having three at the top end, we’d have one spare. So, it was man-for-man for large parts over the pitch - but we know we can adapt to teams and let’s have it right, Southampton are a good team. They’ve got some good footballers and have just come down from the Premier League, but it’s pleasing for us to compete with those kind of teams.”

On PNE not getting a penalty in the first half

“Can we see the game out?” said Lowe. “Yeah, possibly. It wasn’t to be, but I think we should’ve been at 1-1 in the first half - because we should’ve had a stonewall penalty, after watching it back. It’s going in the net and when you don’t get given them... we will probably get an apology tomorrow, for that one. We’ve already had an apology for Saturday’s (handball by Millwall’s Brooke Norton-Cuffy). But I don’t know; if we aren’t going to get any help from anyone, we have to help ourselves and be a little bit better. I don’t like to make excuses and I’m not looking for sorrys or favours. I just want the game to be officiated in the right way.

“There were a couple of things which went on and I wasn’t quite happy about it, but again, it won’t be the first and it probably won’t be the last. I have got a good relationship with Jez (Simpson). We have a laugh and a joke and we spoke in the summer when he sent two players off at Fleetwood - he did that game and he sent one of ours off and one of theirs off. I just shook his hand and said: ‘Well done, but I expect an apology’. He said: ‘Right Ryan, if I feel there is an apology to make I will make it’. But, it’s gutting isn’t it when you know? We’ve watched it back and seen the still. The ‘keeper saves it with his leg, it’s going in the side netting and the kid uses his arm. Whether it is intentional or not... but it is handball.”

On conceding so late and bouncing back

“They are disappointed because they were well worthy of the three points in my eyes, and probably everyone else’s eyes in the ground,” said Lowe. “When you don’t get that, it’s disappointing. But, if you come from behind to get a point then it’s different. Listen, I have just told them that we’ve got to pick ourselves up because we’ve got another game on Saturday and that’s what the Championship brings. It was a good game of football, I thought, with both teams wanting to win. I thought we’d done enough to see it out but again, we’ve got to do better from the corner.”

On Liam Millar’s bright display - but showing Walker-Peters inside for the opener

“Yeah, he was there for a reason down that side,” said Lowe. “First half it was: ‘wow’. He was that speedy. To go up against a top class defender and attacking full-back in Walker-Peters, just shows what Liam’s good qualities are as well. I thought it was a good battle between the two of them, so yeah he was fantastic. We’d like to show (Walker-Peters) outside really and gamble off the cross, but Liam is not a natural defender and I think he just gets flat footed. It’s a great strike across goal, on his behalf. There are no complaints on Liam, not at all. He was fantastic going the other way and fantastic defensively towards the back end; it was just that one moment of brilliance from them. When you’ve got good players coming inside like that, they can use both feet and that’s certainly what Walker-Peters did.”

On the atmosphere inside Deepdale and backing of the fans

“They are brilliant,” said Lowe. “I waved my arms in the air to get them going and they were singing their songs, which they do. They’ve been doing that and it’s a suckerpunch for them as well, isn’t it? It’s a suckerpunch for everyone in the stadium apart from them (Saints). But look, we’ve just got to keep doing the right things. We’ve been fantastic in 10 out of 13 games, but even in the three we lost there was still some good football. The fact is we’ve lost three but are in a good position, have some good points on the board and just want to keep continuing to work hard on the training pitch - to collect as many points as we can.”