Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe calls for respect for Daniel Johnson after being jeered off in last game

North End’s no.10 was replaced with 20 mintues to go in the 4-0 defeat to Norwich City and his withdrawl was met with ironic cheers from the home support.

A former player of the year at Deepdale, Johnson has not hit his top form so far this campaign and has been in and out of the side.

Preston’s supporters have been growing increasingly vocal in recent weeks and Lowe has called for them to respect one of their longest serving players but also to consider the human side and who shouting abuse impacts.

He said: “I haven't addressed it with anyone. What I will say, with DJ having been mentioned, is that he's given this football club a fantastic nine years. What a bargain he was at £50,000.

"I understand frustration with all fans, I do, I'm a fan myself, I get frustrated with the players as well. But I get frustrated in a different way because I'm the manager. He needs to be shown a little bit more respect in my eyes.

"He might not be playing as well as people want him to play, or as well as I want him to play or as well as he'd want in his own way, but it's tough. I don't want to go against anything but no one sees the family matters.

"DJ's family are all in a box, his daughter is there watching the game. Whether it's me and my family and they hear someone screaming at me, or the players', there's a lot of anger around in football at the minute.

"All I ask is stick with this group of players and this club, it's fine to be frustrated, but you're die hard Preston North End fans, stick to that. Stick to the badge, don't go screaming and shouting at the players. Take it out in the pub when you're having your pint with your mates. We've all got feelings, it's not nice sometimes.”

North End have a job on their hands this weekend as they look to give a proper response to their beating last week.

They travel to Birmingham City four points behind the play-off places but the manner of their previous defeat is still fresh in the mind of their travelling support.

Lowe sees it as a chance to put things right but is also wary of the Blues seeing them as an easy target and coming into the game full of confidence.

He said: “The last one was Luton away, it was farcical. That was last March, I'll take one of them every nine or 10 months because it's football, it will happen. I wouldn't take it every couple of weeks because that doesn't work.

"These lads don't have that in their locker, yes, every now and then it doesn't go your way and there is stuff that we need to improve on. It's up to us to do that on the training pitch.

"It's an opportunity for us to put it right but it's also an opportunity for another team to think they can get about Preston. We have to make sure we get back to some basics of being hard to beat, defending well, attacking well and creating chances. If we do that I'm always confident we can get wins.”