Preston North End boss hoping his side have the secret to getting into the play-offs as they prepare for Sheffield United

North End lead the division defensively, conceding only two goals in their nine games so far this season. Next best is Saturday’s opponents Sheffield United, who come to Deepdale top of the table having conceded five times.

From the outside, the resilience shown in their rearguard can be seen as coming from a boring approach but Lowe thinks it’s nothing of the sort and knows its effectiveness.

He said: "I think some fans, pundits or media outlets want loads of goals. I remember Arsenal's Invincibles were called boring Arsenal but they were winning games of football 1-0, keeping the back door shut. We don't see it as that.

"We'll look after 10 games at one we can do better, like we did after five, and we're always learning on a daily basis what we need to do.

"What the group is doing defensively is phenomenal. In the Cardiff game we didn't play well at all, the Birmingham game when I've looked at it back we were good but missed opportunities.

"I don't think there have been any other poor games. Even Tuesday night, we were excellent out of possession, we just weren't excellent in possession but we had a very good team standing in our way. You have to give credit to the opposition teams.”

With seven clean sheets in their first seven games this season, North End sit top of the charts when it comes to shutouts.

Lowe is hoping theat their proficiency in keeping the ball out of the net could be their secret weapon in their play-off push.

He said: “Keeping the ball out of your net is one of your strong points. If you can keep 17 or 18 clean sheets, obviously you have to be scoring goals and picking up points, it more or less guarantees you get into the play-offs - and we have seven already.

"If we can get another 10 and start putting the ball in the back of the net and picking up more points, you're getting where you want to get to.”