Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe has praised Milutin Osmajic after his impact off the bench against Southampton on Wednesday night.
North End were back in action for the second part of a home double-header, welcoming Southampton to Deepdale.
This was always going to be a tricky game and Southampton showed off some of their lingering Premier League quality as Kyle Walker-Peter opened the scoring.
PNE did pose a threat though and were unlucky to go in at half-time 1-0 down.
Ryan Lowe changed it at the break, taking off playmaker Mads Frøkjær-Jensen for striker Milutin Osmajic and the switch worked perfectly.
Osmajic smashed home the equaliser before setting up Brad Potts to put North End ahead just moments later.
That should have given North End the win but it wasn’t to be with Southampton snatching a late-gasp leveller.
Ryan Lowe explains Milutin Osmajic substitution
Fans were a little surprised to see Frøkjær-Jensen hooked at the break; he had scored in his last two games and seemed to be building momentum.
Still, Lowe saw something that made Osmajic the right man for the job, allowing Will Keane to drop into a deeper role.
Lowe has now suggested that North End needed another body up top, believing that another striker was required over a number 10.
Lowe told iFollow that that Frøkjær-Jensen just wasn’t quite at it on the ball or in terms of his pressing, but noted that the change was nothing against him.
The PNE boss felt that the substitution certainly helped North End get on the front foot before then praising striker Osmajic.
A deadline day signing from Cadiz, Osmajic has shown flashes of his quality but this was the first really dominant display from the Montenegrin.
Lowe admitted that Osmajic has been struggling with a sore throat of late, but was desperate to make an impact and was simply ‘fantastic’ against the Saints.
“We made a change at half-time, we felt that we needed another body up there, even though Keano’s a striker, he went into the 10 and we brought Milly on,” said Lowe.
“Mads weren’t quite in the game and weren’t quite getting the press right, but that’s nothing against Mads, we just wanted to change one or two things around at halftime, we did and we came out on the front foot.”
“He’d been chomping at the bit, he hasn’t been too well to be fair, he’s had a sore throat. He’s still learning and coming back from being away with Montenegro, he’s always going to be used in different ways and, of course, he was fantastic when he came on the pitch so fair play,” he added.