Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe has shared his excitement after seeing Layton Stewart make his Championship debut on Saturday.
Lowe took his PNE side on the road on Saturday afternoon with North End taking on Rotherham United.
PNE had won six games in a row had given North End an incredible start to the season but the run came to an end.
Rotherham took a lead through ex-PNE striker Jordan Hugill, as he got the better of Liam Lindsay before curling home a beautiful strike.
Lindsay made amends though, rising highest to head home Robbie Brady’s corner on the stroke of half-time.
North End pushed for a winner but it just wouldn’t come despite launching 14 shots at the Rotherham goal, leaving Lowe and to head home with a 1-1 draw.
Layton Stewart makes PNE debut
We also saw a first Championship appearance for Layton Stewart following his summer arrival from Liverpool.
Stewart arrived over the summer with PNE hoping to develop him into a top Championship striker.
The 21-year-old had shown real promise in the Liverpool ranks as a kid and made a first-team debut for the Reds last season.
The time had come for Stewart to move on but he has been forced to wait for a debut with Lowe believing that he needed to build himself up physically.
Over a month into the campaign, Stewart has now made his Championship bow for PNE and will be looking to kick on moving forward.
Lowe has now told iFollow that he and Mike Marsh wanted to throw Stewart on in the hope of snatching a late winner.
Lowe noted that Stewart has been impressing in training and believes that he would have buried a winning goal if he had the chance.
The PNE boss hopes to see more of Stewart moving forward with the ex-Liverpool man now raring to go.
“We were discussing on the side and I just thought we’ll change it, we went to go and win the game, of course we did, and get another striker up the pitch and we wanted to give him enough time to get it,” said Lowe.
“We felt were were still in control with the two 10’s, and Marshy said ‘let’s give him enough time to try and get a goal’. If he had got one chance, he’d have scored, trust me, because he can finish and he showed that all week in training this week and last week and he’s had that reward of making his first Championship appearance – hopefully, there’s many more to come,” he added.