Preston offer to refund fans after a 4-0 defeat at Luton that Lilywhites boss Lowe 'didn't see coming'

Preston North End have decided to refund the 614 travelling supporters who made the trip to Kenilworth Road on Wednesday night to see their team beaten 4-0 by Luton, a defeat that boss Ryan Lowe admitted he 'didn't see coming.'

Following a first half in which Luke Berry scored twice and Fred Onyedinma found the net, the Lilywhites then conceded again on the hour mark, hapless defender Bambo Diaby putting through his own net when goalkeeper Daniel Iversen's punch rebounded off him.

In response to the performance, director Peter Ridsdale issued a statement on the club's website saying: "Following a conversation I had with our manager Ryan Lowe immediately after last night’s match, the club suggested that on this occasion it was appropriate to offer a refund of the ticket price to those supporters from Preston North End who travelled to Kenilworth Road for the Championship fixture last night.

"Whilst this is something that we would not ordinarily consider, we do believe that for just over 600 supporters to travel on a wet Wednesday night was amazing and sadly the performance on the field was not acceptable.

"Supporters work long hours and give up their hard earned money to watch our team.

"We really appreciate your loyalty and despite the score line you gave your vocal support right to the end."

Boss Lowe also stated: "I just want to apologise to the fans because that’s not what I was brought in to do.

"I was brought in to give them some good times back and get my team to play the way they want them to play, which in all fairness, they’ve done for large parts of games and since I’ve been here that’s hopefully a one-off, a bad day at the office.

“We’ll reimburse the fans their money back because it’s their hard-earned money.

"They’ve travelled away on a cold Wednesday night and they’d have been better watching a Sunday League game because that was nowhere near good enough for what we want to do."

Going into the game, Preston had been on a decent run of form, only losing twice in the league since early December and still harbouring faint hopes themselves of reaching the play-offs.

A third loss of manager Lowe's reign left him slightly bamboozled with the display produced though, adding: "I didn’t see it coming at all.

"They were in fantastic spirits, they trained well, I just didn't see it.

"We can maybe blame one or two things along the way, I’m the manager, I have to take responsibility.

"I pick the team, but we gave them everything to go out and execute a gameplan that they’ve executed for the 17 or 18 games, whatever it is.

"So it’s one that needs to be put to bed quickly, I’ll analyse, I’ll look at it and get the lads to look at it.

"They’re a good group and it’s hurting them in there, so we’ll have a think over the next few hours about how we go about it but I just don't want to see a performance like that again.

“The turnovers for the goal, the first one we’ve given the ball away and then we’ve allowed a cross to come in and not dealt with it, it’s ricocheted down.

“Then a free-kick, wide free-kick, which we haven’t picked up around the back, and then the third one was sort of a little backheel and it’s just gone in at the near post.

"It was like a cartoon goal or something off the TV, it was embarrassing.

“The fourth one sums us up, Daniel (Iversen) punches it when he can catch it and it hits Bambo in the head and goes in.

"The goals that we’ve conceded were very, very messy and not very good.

“That’s a performance I want to forget very quickly as a Preston North End manager and I will.

"That’s happened to me before as a manager, it’s probably happened to Preston North End as fans and as a club, but it won’t happen many times again because I won’t allow it to.”