New Wigan Athletic head coach's petty past words on Blackpool in selection disagreement

The 46-year-old, who was sacked by the Lilywhites at the start of the current campaign, has replaced Shaun Maloney at the Brick Community Stadium, penning a three-and-a-half year deal with the Latics.

During his time at Deepdale, Lowe clashed with Blackpool a number of times, with one war of words coming last season due to a team selection disagreement in a Central League game.

The Seasiders named a number of first-team players for fixture at Springfields, with Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons, Sonny Carey, Karamoko Dembele and Jake Beesley all starting.

In his following press conference after the game, Lowe vented his frustration over the players on display, with North End naming a much more youthful side.

They were strong,” he said back in September 2023.

“I was a bit disappointed, because we had a conversation with them that we were going to play the kids - and they chose to bring senior players. So, that is their problem, not ours.

“We won’t do that again. I was disappointed with them; how they went about it. I suppose it helped our youngsters, really. We wanted to play our youngsters against their youngsters, which would’ve been fair. But, they chose to have their first-team players and first-team staff there.

“That is their prerogative, not ours. Our kids probably got more out of it than their pros probably got out of it, because it was a big test for them. So yeah, disappointed in what they did, but that’s Blackpool for you.”

Blackpool’s response

Seasiders coach at the time Neil Critchley was quick to respond to Lowe’s comments, and disputed the claims made by the former Plymouth Argyle boss.

"I felt it was pretty strange to be honest,” he stated.

"Ryan was fully aware of what we were intending to do because out of respect, we let them know early last week. We take a lot of time over what is right for our players. We’ve got a lot of midweek games coming up and this was the perfect opportunity for some people to play.

"We let Preston know. Initially I believe they said they were going to play some of their fringe players, and the game was changed to Euxton. We then found out later in the week that they had changed their decision, which is fine- no problem.

"They said they were going to play younger players- no problem, that’s up to them, but our senior players needed to play and at that stage it was too late in the day for us to rearrange another game, so we decided to carry on with our original plan, which they were fully aware of.

"I’m not sure why Ryan said what he did, in the way he did. Some of our players who are not in the team will end up playing, and they need to be ready. The way to get them ready is for them to play games. Tuesday was the natural time for us to get a game into them. Preston chose to name younger players, that was entirely their decision.”

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