Kian Best challenges Ryan Lowe as his Preston North End team-mate provides support

The young PNE player burst onto the first team scene right at the beginning of this season

The Preston North End manager said Kian Best played “fantastic” at the start of the season and now needs to continue his efforts after being dropped from the squad last weekend at Rotherham.

The first-year professional, who played for the youth team last Saturday, has made five appearances for the first team this campaign. Best was introduced to the Championship on the opening day of the season at Bristol City, before playing matches against Sheffield Wednesday, Swansea City and Sunderland. He also started in the Carabao Cup match against Salford City.

Best, 18, signed a two-year professional contract this summer after impressing with the youth team. He was heavily involved in PNE’s pre-season and was subsequently included in the Ashton Gate squad. He provided a brilliant assist for Preston’s winning goal at Hillsborough and made a number of errors in home games, but Best’s courage impressed Lowe – who believed it was important is to keep this young player playing.

“That’s right,” Lowe said. “Besty obviously had a bit of a setback having to leave the team, sit on the bench and then play for the youth team. But he’s still just a kid and has a long way to go. This is the way you do it.” react now to the situation of playing this type of football. He was instrumental for us, at the beginning of the season, because we needed him and he has been fantastic in everything he has done.

“But then when you have quality coming back into the building; He’s still here and trains hard every day. But now Betsy has had to reset: let’s do it again. He’s great and what he needs to do now is keep pushing himself, keep working and doing the right things – which we’ll make sure he does. Sometimes it’s hard to get back into junior football at that level, when you’ve played with the seniors and played championship football. But these are the tests and now the real test for Betsy to keep moving forward.

Following Best’s first appearance, North End signed left-winger Liam Millar and Robbie Brady also returned from injury. The player made his debut at Rotherham, providing support from the sidelines in the opening matches of the campaign. Brady likes what he sees from Best and assures that the youngster will receive support from the senior players. He thinks there are a lot of positive things for him.

Following Best’s first appearance, North End signed left-winger Liam Millar and Robbie Brady also returned from injury. The player made his debut at Rotherham, providing support from the sidelines in the opening matches of the campaign. Brady likes what he sees from Best and assures that the youngster will receive support from the senior players. He thinks there are a lot of positive things for him.