Preston North End boss delivers verdict on Aberdeen win as new star shines

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe was delighted with the way his battling side dispensed with Scottish Premiership visitors Aberdeen. Danish international Mads Frokjaer bagged a deadly double at Deepdale in just his second match for the club as the impressive Lilywhites bounced back from a 2-1 loss to Ipswich Town on Wednesday night.

Victory was the club’s fourth from six pre-season fixtures so far, but Lowe stressed: “The result is irrelevant really, but it’s nice to score goals and for Mads to get some goals. In pre-season there’s no points at stake, but we want to score goals of course.

“I thought the performance for 35 minutes of the first half was us. We had a sloppy spell in there where we gave the ball away a little bit. Then second half, well I thought it was always going to be different. I said to the players ‘look, use this now as a Championship game’. Hopefully you’ll be 2-0 up at some point throughout the score of the season, so use it [the match situation] to how you’re going to manage the game.

“I said they’re [Aberdeen] are going to change and come after you a little bit. And, to be fair to Aberdeen, they did. They caused a couple of problems, but we dealt with them. It’s [the performance] better than it has been, but it’s nowhere near where we want to be next.”

He added: “We’ve got lads coming from injury and we’re without a few keys players, but ultimately if they keep performing better as the games go I’ll be pleased ahead of our opening game against Bristol City.”

Frokjaer needed just seven minutes to find the back of the net for first Preston goal, before bagging a second just ten minutes later to put the hosts into the ascendancy.

And Lowe believes he and the club have done a shrewd bit of business to sign the 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who penned a four-and-a-half year deal earlier this month.

“He’s a good footballer, we know that,” added Lowe. “That’s why we’ve signed him and invested in him. But we can’t get too carried away, we’ve got to keep working with him. There’s some stuff out of position we need to work with him on, which we know.

“I said to him at half-time where there was one recovery part of the game which should have been a sprint. He’s got to be aware of that. But he has scored two fantastic goals. That’s what he is, a goalscoring midfielder.

“Hopefully we’ll get more goals out of him. He’s new, but he’s been excellent. He’s been a breath of fresh air to work with and the lads all like him. When he’s a good player, well it always helps.

“But we’ve still got to keep working with him to make sure he does the dirty bits as well. We’ve got to keep working with him to get in those positions. But he is comfortable on the ball – and that’s why we’ve signed him ultimately. We want that to continue.”

Preston team: Woodman; Diaby (Storey, 74), Lindsay (Bauer, 74), Cunningham (Slater, 66); Potts (Ramsay, 80), Taylor (Mawene, 66), McCann (Ledson, 74), Frøkjær (Holmes, 61), Best (Seary, 85); Keane (Stewart, 66), Woodburn (Rodriguez-Gentile, 74).

Sub not used: Cornell.

Attendance: 4,271 (1,332 Aberdeen)

By Neil Goulding