Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe says he is delighted with the form of on-loan Manchester United fullback Alvaro Fernandez.

The left-back moved to Deepdale in the summer on a season-long loan from United in order to gain more competitive, first team game time. Bar a spell out of the side with an ankle injury, Fernandez has established himself as a regular for the Lilywhites this season.

Many were surprised to see that Lowe opted to leave Fernandez on the bench on Tuesday night as his side moved just outside the play off places in the Championship with a 1-0 victory over Swansea City. Explaining his thinking behind the decision, Lowe told Lancs Live: "Alvaro is a baby. He is fantastic, but he's a baby.

"He is literally two years older than my lad, who is 16. When I look at him, he looks like a man and he is a man in and around the place, but he's 18 and at some point he will fatigue and burn out.

"We don't want to do that, so we've got a squad where people are capable of stepping in when needs be. The lads who've gone out, they've gone out because we need to freshen it up - not because of bad performance.

"I probably could've freshen two more positions up, but I felt that it had to be spot on with the right characters out there tonight."