News as Preston North End and Stoke City get ready to play in the Championship at Deepdale
This week, as they get ready for their second managerial matchup, close friend Ryan Lowe and Steven Schumacher have been avoiding each other.
Lowe, Schumacher’s former teammate at Crewe Alexandra and Bury, brought him to Bury as a coach. The two went on to make a successful duo act at Gigg Lane and later Plymouth Argyle, winning two promotions together before Schumacher earned a third on his own. While Schumacher, who departed for Stoke in December, is fighting for survival at the opposite end of the division, Lowe, who left Argyle for Preston in 2021, is attempting to lead his team into the Championship play-offs.
Regular talks have been postponed until after full time since both teams have a lot riding on this afternoon. Preston is four points out of the top six with a game remaining, while Stoke is in a group of eight clubs separated by just two points.
According to Schumacher, “as players, we played against each other a lot.” We’ve been friends for a long time, and I certainly trained him for five or six years at that time.
“As managers we’ve gone up against each other once, earlier this season, and it was weird going up against your mate. He came out on top, just about, but hopefully he doesn’t this weekend.
We usually talk a few times a week at the very least, but this week we haven’t. Simply put, we don’t answer the phone to one another. There comes a time when he knows he won’t say too much and I can’t say too much. I hope to be in a better attitude when I visit his office this time, as I won’t be speaking to him until Saturday after the game.
After defeating Schumacher’s Plymouth 2-1 at home in September, Preston is back at Deepdale without a scheduled midweek match. Just over three hours before kickoff on Wednesday night, the Southampton game was called off due to a massive fire near St Mary’s Stadium.
According to Schumacher, there are numerous reasons why games may be postponed during a season, but that particular one was novel to him. They had to make the trip again on Wednesday night after visiting that location on Tuesday. We won’t use the fact that they’ll be a little fresher as an excuse. It will require us to travel there and adjust our energy levels if we are to succeed in obtaining a
