Ryan Lowe is anticipating a special afternoon on Saturday as he prepares for his first Gentry Day experience as Preston North End manager.
Gentry Day is an occasion which PNE fans use to come together annually to remember all those who we have sadly lost.
While he wasn’t aware of the day on his arrival as manager, Ryan has been spending time recently learning the history of the tradition.
He told iFollow PNE: “I’ve obviously had to research it a little bit. First and foremost I think it’s a great occasion for the ones who have sadly passed, especially the Preston North End fans.
“They’ve made it to be a special day, so I hope they enjoy their day and hopefully we can give them something to be proud of, all the ones here and the ones who are not here.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing them all in their hats. We need to pay them back for Monday’s performance, we know it wasn’t good enough, the result wasn’t good enough, so our main aim is to make sure the players are on side with everything we’re trying to do.
“Ultimately the fans are coming to show their support and obviously with an occasion on a day like Gentry Day, we’ve got to make sure we put on a performance for them.”
Oakwell will be the setting for the occasion, with bottom of the table Barnsley the opposition.
The Tykes, currently without a permanent manager, will be playing League One football next season following their relegation earlier this month, but Ryan is taking nothing for granted heading to Yorkshire.
“First and foremost, we’ll pay Barnsley the utmost respect,” he said. “I know they’ve been relegated but they’ve had a fantastic go at it, and I’m sure they’ll have a fantastic go at trying to get back to the Championship next season.
“They’ve got some quality footballers and you can’t underestimate what they might do.
“I know they lost the other night, but in terms of us, it’s about what we do. We’ll worry about them such as how we think they’ll play and what they’ll do, but ultimately most of it will be about what we do on the day, and if we turn up on the day, as we’ve seen throughout the season we’re a match for anyone in the division.”
The manager provided a squad update ahead of the Barnsley fixture, with only Andrew Hughes and Ched Evans considered knocks, while Tom Barkhuizen is to be assessed after playing 45 minutes in the Central League earlier this week.
Ryan also confirmed that Izzy Brown and Josh Murphy are no longer training with the club and will not be returning to Euxton next season.
“I wish the two of them all the best,” he added. “They’ve had opportunities to showcase what they’re about on a daily basis in terms of the standards I set and what I want from my players in the group. They didn’t meet the standards unfortunately.
“It was easy enough to say Izzy had been out for a long time with his injury and we’ll make sure we look after Izzy with his rehab stuff and with the PFA and going to St George’s Park to get him back fit and firing.
“As for Josh, his contract is running out at Cardiff City. His loan was here until the end of the season, so we felt we needed to tell him now that he wouldn’t be getting a contract here and we felt they could start planning for their futures now, so from now we wish them all the best in the future.”