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. 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.
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,[1] 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.[3]
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.[5] 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[6] before leaving the club by mutual consent shortly after the return of manager Mark Wright.[7]
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.[8] His transfer was not made permanent and he was not included in the side which clinched promotion in the play-off final against RochdaleatWembley 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.[9] 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.[10] The following week it was announced Lowe had left Chester by mutual agreement, with several Football League clubs interested in signing him.[11]
On 10 June 2009, Bury confirmed the signing of Lowe on free transfer[12] 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. 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 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.[13]
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.[15] On 21 June 2013, Lowe agreed to cancel his Milton Keynes Dons contract[16] and agreed to join Tranmere Rovers on a free transfer with a two-year deal.[17]
Ryan Lowe is congratulated by teammates after scoring the opening goal for Crewe Alexandra in a 2–1 win at Stevenage (6 August 2016).
On 23 November 2015 Lowe rejoined his former club Crewe Alexandra on loan until 5 January 2016,[19] and in his first appearance scored a stoppage time winner at Colchester United.[20] He signed a new full contract with Crewe in May 2016,[21] and on 6 August made his third scoring Crewe debut with the first goal in a 2–1 win at Stevenage.[22] Three days later, Lowe scored both Crewe goals in a 2–1 League Cup tie win at Sheffield United.[23]
In January 2017, Lowe returned to Bury in a player-coach role.[24] Following the sacking of manager Lee Clark in October 2017, Lowe was appointed caretaker-manager, taking charge for Bury's FA Cup first-round tie at National League side Woking.[25] He remained in charge for six games (two wins, two draws, two defeats) until 22 November when Chris Lucketti was appointed Clark's successor, with Lowe becoming player-coach again.[26] In January 2018, after Lucketti was sacked, Lowe was again appointed caretaker-manager, this time until the end of the season, with Ryan Kidd as his assistant.[27] He decided to end his playing career to concentrate on management and coaching. His last match as a player was for Bury against Bristol Rovers on Friday, 30 March 2018 in League One.[28]
In May 2018, Lowe was appointed full-time manager of Bury on a two-year contract.[29] Bury had just been relegated and, to "sort out the mess of the previous season" and prepare for the 2018–19 season in EFL League Two, Lowe was very busy in the transfer market with eleven players being transferred out or released, and another eleven being transferred in, all of them on free transfers. He said that players who did not fulfil their potential had to go and be replaced by players with some passion who "could get bums off seats at Gigg Lane".[3]
After a shaky start to the season in which the new team found its feet, Bury had reached fourth place in the table when they travelled to promotion rivals Mansfield Town on Boxing Day. They lost that match and dropped to sixth place but then began an unbeaten run which firmly established them in the top three. In addition, Lowe led them to the semi-final stage of the EFL Trophy, Bury's best-ever showing in this tournament, before they were defeated by League One Portsmouth. In recognition of his success in turning the team around, Lowe was three times awarded the EFL League Two Manager of the Month award – in November 2018, January 2019 and February 2019.[30][31][32]
After guiding his side to four wins and two draws from six matches during an 17 game unbeaten run in the league, in a month that saw Plymouth top the League One table, Lowe was named EFL League One Manager of the Month for October 2021.[35] On 7 December 2021, Lowe resigned as Plymouth manager, with the club fourth in League One.[36]
Lowe's managerial style has been influenced by Jürgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Rafa Benítez and Lowe's long-time friend Steven Gerrard, among others.[3] He is attack-minded, and Bury in 2018–19 were one of the Football League's highest-scoring teams; their style, described as "gung-ho",[3] soon brought success as the club finished second in League Two and earned promotion back to League One.[38] Lowe explained in an interview with The Guardian that he wanted to instil a "winning philosophy" and that, by outscoring their opponents, Bury would have a greater chance of achieving that goal. The on-field strategy is effectively a 3-1-4-2 formation.[3]
