Strong start for Lowton - Assessing Town's newest defensive recruit
Zak Armitage, Feature Writer
Twitter: @SportWriterZak
As Town bowed out of the FA Cup on Saturday it pretty much exemplified what has been a miserable season (so far). Fighting for our lives in the league and out of both cup competitions at the first hurdle, to the SAME team.
But, unlike when Preston accounted for us in August after a calamitous Carabao Cup performance, there were undoubted positives for Town to take from Saturday’s showing in Lancashire:
Jack Rudoni put in a solid individual performance in the first half. He’s become a real talismanic figure for Town in recent weeks. He looked lively going forward and was involved in a handful of Town’s attacking moves.
Flo Kamberi has already exceeded the not so great expectations of many after his debut, which included joining the list of Town attackers to score in their first outing. Recent inductees on that list include Steve Mounié, Elias Kachunga, Nahki Wells and Jordan Rhodes. He’s not in bad company there.
But perhaps the biggest positive from Saturday was an impressive debut from another recent arrival, Matt Lowton, who didn’t look out of place in his first outing for Town.
A vastly experienced defender, who’s played against Town a handful of times during his career, including the 2012 playoff final at Wembley for Sheffield United. Lowton could play a key role in changing Town’s fortunes ahead of a vitally important run of games, with six pointers against Hull and Blackpool up next.
A signing that brings undoubted pedigree to the Town ranks, Lowton seemed to have bundles of energy at Deepdale and was very much up to speed before being replaced by Brahima Diarra at the 70-minute mark. Considering the fact he’s been restricted to just two appearances for his parent club Burnley so far this season, it was rather impressive and very much a testament to his character.
Despite only being in the building for a few days, Lowton could’ve easily passed as an experienced and established piece of the Town furniture. In what was (another) poor team performance, he was one of the few individuals who stood out and was the ONLY player to receive praise from Mark Fotheringham. On his performance, the Head Coach said:
“What was important for me was to see Matthew Lowton come in. He showed real experience, he looked sharp in everything he did, and that was a very big positive for me. That’s a guy who’s not had many minutes of late, and when he made the bursting run at the end [of his time on the pitch] and put a cross in, we could have gone 2-0.”
Town will undoubtedly look towards Lowton in the coming months, he oozes experience and isn’t a stranger to great escapes, having been a part of Aston Villa and Burnley teams that have narrowly avoided the drop from the Premier League in recent years. In a season where Town have struggled with their recruitment, Lowton could prove to be a shrewd piece of business as they look to get fresh faces in the building to add much-needed ammunition to this desperate battle for survival. So, if fans are optimistic enough to take any positives out of Saturday, it should be the debut of our newest defensive recruit.
Matt Lowton could be paramount if Town are to retain their Championship status come May.
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