Exclusive: Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe on a football career that has only gone upwards – after the intervention of Everton launched his dreams

Ryan Lowe’s career has only travelled in one direction.

As a teenager bouncing around Merseyside’s fiercely competitive non-professional football scene it was unclear what that would be. He always scored goals, so he always believed he would get a chance. But nothing in football is guaranteed – as he learned when years earlier a broken ankle hampered his time in Liverpool’s academy.

Lowe did eventually get an opportunity, and about 600 games and 200-odd goals later it is fair to say that, had he not, the game would have missed out. His journey took him from East Villa and Waterloo Dock to the likes of Sheffield Wednesday. Now, as manager of Preston North End in the Championship, he is not far from reaching the very top while at an historic club that he knows is a privilege to be involved with.

It has been some career for a lifelong Liverpool fan who once played alongside Steven Gerrard in his formative years. But, he will freely admit, he is living a dream that has only been made possible by Everton.

Lowe grew up in the streets around Everton and Anfield, a hotbed of football talent in a city that produces superstars. His potential surfaced quickly but that broken ankle halted his hopes of rising through the ranks of a professional club. He was invited back to Liverpool after he recovered but his opportunities were limited, pushing him into the Merseyside amateur football scene. There, he earned a reputation as a clinical goalscorer for the likes of East Villa and Waterloo Dock before ending up at Burscough, where he scored 38 goals as the club was promoted to the Unibond Premier League.

His form caught the attention of scouts and trials at Hull City, Rochdale and Tranmere Rovers followed. But it was the interest of renowned Blues scout Sid Benson that proved to be the turning point. Lowe went to Everton with dreams of following in the footsteps of Billy Kenny, who had lived on his north Liverpool street and whose dad had previously managed him, but his age was a problem – as much as he was liked he was caught in a developmental trap as he was spotted just as he was about to graduate out of youth football at a time when he was too raw for the senior ranks of a Premier League side.

The club was still good to him, however, and recommended him to Blues legend Kevin Ratcliffe who, with former Everton youth coach Dave Fogg, was in charge of Third Division Shrewsbury Town at the time.

Reflecting on the call that changed his life, Lowe told the ECHO: “I got a phone call from Dave and he said, ‘Ryan, look, don’t go anywhere, we have heard good reports on you, you have been recommended by Everton, we just want to make sure your attitude and application is right and, if you’re fit, there will be a contract for you’. My goal was to get to professional level. I was there for a week, Kevin Ratcliffe signed me on a 12-month contract and six months later I signed a new deal and I was at Shrewsbury for five years. Although I am a Liverpool fan, I am not a bitter Liverpool fan because Everton helped me get onto the ladder. It is bizarre but Everton, for me, helped me to get to where I wanted.”

Lowe did not look back. He did his learning at Shrewsbury, where he filled in the gaps left in his footballing education by having not risen through a club’s ranks. There, he played alongside current Blues assistant manager Ian Woan and Mark Atkins, who won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers. Ratcliffe, as would be expected, left an impression on him.

Lowe said: “He was good. One of the best to grace the turf for Everton. I haven’t seen him for a couple of years but every time I see him I am thankful to him for giving me the opportunity. He had his own ways, a different style of management to what it is like now. I take little bits from all the managers who managed me and Ratcliffe could lose his head but he was a great leader and Foggy really helped me too.”

For Lowe the money “was almost irrelevant so long as I could get by”. It was a rollercoaster in Shropshire, where he was part of the same team that shocked Everton in the FA Cup but then got relegated from the Football League months later. Lowe ended up with a young Wayne Rooney’s shirt after the FA Cup win, which he recently donated to charity.

A two decade professional career saw Lowe enjoy stints at Chester City, Crewe Alexandra, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday and MK Dons. He got stronger as he became more experienced – scoring more than half of his goals in the second half of his career. Most of those were across his three stints at Bury, where he was happiest and where he finished his playing career at the age of 39.

He credits his longevity with having not had the intensity of youth football in an academy. In those fragile teenage years there were questions over whether he would make it in the game, but he was driven by the confidence goalscoring gave to him as he mixed playing amateur football with working at his family’s gym in Liverpool city centre.

Asked whether he ever doubted he would get a chance to live his dream, he said: “When I was younger, I didn’t think I was that good when I saw players who were better than me. It was when I was playing for the likes of the Sandon and Waterloo Dock and was coming up against ex-players who played at good levels and they are telling you how good you are, then it starts to sink in that you must have something. But my biggest strength was scoring goals. I just knew where the back of the net was. When you do that and people are speaking about you and your name is out there in the papers each week, in the pink ECHO each week, I always felt I would get an opportunity. So when I got the opportunity at Shrewsbury it didn’t matter if it was one pound or one penny, I was going to take it. But just before then I realised I had to step up my fitness and eat the right things – that all came when I was at Burscough.”

Lowe acknowledged his desire to stay in the game long before he retired and so started his coaching badges while he was still playing. This stood him in good stead when the opportunity to transition into the dugout came during his final stint at Bury, where he began as a development coach before managerial turnover presented him with the chance to take the reins.

He led Bury into League One before, as chaos engulfed Gigg Lane, getting the chance to takeover Plymouth Argyle, who he also got promoted from League Two with the help of assistant and former Everton youngster Steven Schumacher. Lowe had laid the foundations for the south coast club’s promotion to the Championship when Preston came knocking – providing an opportunity to reach the second tier and move closer to his home and family.

It was another exciting move – and another step on his upward trajectory. Lowe said: “When the opportunity came up here, I was leaving a fantastic football club in Plymouth. When this chance came up I didn’t know the vision of the club but after 10 minutes of listening to the plan I knew it was for me. If you look at what they do here, they give managers longevity – and they have given that to me. I knew I would get the chance to put my stamp on a fantastic club with a great history. When I came in we were 19th, we finished 12th and 12 points off the play-offs. Last season we finished six points outside the play-offs. This year, who knows, but I just want to try and progress for the club every year I am here. We are doing that, bringing young players through and there is a project to build and it is tough because success takes a while, but I want to try and take the football club forward.”

Preston currently sit in mid-table after a sickening stoppage-time defeat to Leeds United at the weekend. They are within touching distance of the play-offs, a position that remains an achievement for a club that is operating sustainably in a league that is characterised by boom or bust. Lowe is keenly aware of the importance of sustainability after his time at Bury and said he was grateful for the support given to him by owners the Hemmings family and others at the top of the club. He said: “It is a great club with a great fanbase and myself, the staff and players are doing our best every day to bring the success to the fans, who have been brilliant.”