Ryan Lowe

On 25 April he scored Bury's third in a 3–2 win over league leaders Chesterfield in the 87th minute, promoting his side to League One.

Ryan Thomas Lowe (born 18 September 1978) is an English football manager and former professional player, who is manager of Championship side Preston North End.

His playing career, as a striker, began at Burscough in 1999 and he became a Football League player with Shrewsbury Town the following year.

He played for eight league clubs in all and had three spells at Bury.

He moved into the Football League with Shrewsbury Town in time for 2000–01.

After almost five years with the Shrews (which included a season in the Football Conference), Lowe switched to Football League Two side Chester City on 22 March 2005.

He spent a year at Chester, which included scoring twice in a shock FA Cup 3–0 win over Nottingham Forest on 3 December 2005 before leaving the club by mutual consent shortly after the return of manager Mark Wright.

Lowe joined Football League One side Crewe Alexandra in time for 2006–07 season.

He enjoyed a successful debut for the Railwaymen, scoring the opening goal; assisting David Vaughan's goal and earning the man of the match in Crewe's 2–2 draw with Northampton Town on 5 August 2006.

Lowe continued his form over the first few games of the season, scoring a further two goals in late August.

However, the arrival of Rodney Jack to the club saw him lose his starting place for much of September.

He returned to the starting line up on 30 September 2006 against Carlisle United.

Lowe scored his only hat-trick for Crewe as they ran out 5–1 winners at the Alexandra Stadium.

After spells in and out of the Crewe side, Lowe joined Stockport County on loan on 27 March 2008.

His transfer was not made permanent and he was not included in the side which clinched promotion in the play-off final against Rochdale at Wembley Stadium.

On 2 July 2008, Lowe returned to Chester on a two-year deal, becoming the club's fifth summer signing after Anthony Barry, Jay Harris, David Mannix and Paul Taylor.

Lowe scored twice including a penalty, in his first home game back for Chester against Leeds United in a 5–2 loss in the League Cup on 12 August 2008 and repeated the feat in a 5–1 thrashing of Barnet later in the month.

Lowe went on to comfortably finish as Chester's leading scorer with 18 goals (16 in the league), in a season which ended with the side suffering relegation from Football League Two.

He received the club's player of the season award before the final match of the campaign against Darlington.

The following week it was announced Lowe had left Chester by mutual agreement, with several Football League clubs interested in signing him.

On 10 June 2009, Bury confirmed the signing of Lowe on free transfer Lowe scored his first goal for Bury on 18 August 2009 away at Hereford United in a 3–1 win.

Also, Lowe scored in Bury's 1–0 victory over rivals Rochdale, in the fixture at Gigg Lane.

In the second half of the 2010–11 season, Lowe established a Bury club record by scoring a goal in each of nine consecutive league games.

He scored his 100th league goal on 9 October 2010, bagging a brace against local rivals Accrington Stanley.

At the beginning of the 2010–11 season, he was named vice-captain by Alan Knill.

On 1 March 2011, Lowe broke a 53-year-old club record by scoring in eight consecutive league games in a 3–0 victory over Shrewsbury Town at the Greenhous Meadow.

After a goal in the following 3–0 victory over Hereford on 5 March he extended the record to nine games.

On 31 August 2011, Lowe joined Bury's fellow League One team Sheffield Wednesday for an undisclosed six figure fee.

On 1 August 2012, Lowe signed for League One side Milton Keynes Dons for an undisclosed fee and was signed on a two-year deal after limited chances at Hillsborough.

On 21 June 2013, Lowe agreed to cancel his Milton Keynes Dons contract and agreed to join Tranmere Rovers on a free transfer with a two-year deal.

On 19 May 2014, Bury announced that they had re-signed Lowe on a two-year contract.

Lowe ended his playing career at Bury who had signed him again in January 2017, this time as player-coach.

He became caretaker-manager twice in 2017–18 after first Lee Clark and then Chris Lucketti were sacked.

Lowe retired from playing in March 2018 during his second caretaker appointment.

In May 2018, despite their relegation to League Two, Bury offered Lowe the position of full-time manager on a two-year contract to the end of the 2019–20 season.

After guiding the club to promotion back to League One, he left Bury on 5 June 2019 to take over at newly relegated Plymouth Argyle, managing them to an immediate return to League One.

Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, Lowe played for Liverpool's youth team between 12 and 13, before breaking his ankle.

He returned to the team aged 15 before again leaving the club.

While at Liverpool, he formed a friendship with Steven Gerrard.

After Liverpool, Lowe played with Southport's youth team and non–league Liverpool teams Sandon Dock and Waterloo Dock before joining Burscough.